


Distant Worlds

by Puntrest



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Battle Scenes with Blood and Violence, F/F, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-04
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-09-28 06:04:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10075511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Puntrest/pseuds/Puntrest
Summary: Laura Hollis becomes obsessed with a fully immersive virtual reality game after joining a dysfunctional team of misfits. The journey to the final battle is long and challenging, and fantasy life for Laura only grows more difficult when she falls for the team’s sword-wielding vampire.





	1. The Fearsome Team Rainbow

When Laura Hollis first learned of a virtual reality game that allows its players to become fully immersed in a digital world, she’d had more than a few rational doubts. Could a virtual reality truly feel real to a player? How would the physical body react? Could uploading the human consciousness to an online game cause brain damage? Would the in-game physical interactions actually feel as real as the developers claimed?

Though most of her questions had been addressed during the morning’s player orientation and tour of the Silas Institute’s technology wing, Laura’s most pressing skepticism of Distant Worlds wasn’t answered until she had the chance to play the game for herself.

Would a virtual reality feel real? The answer, Laura quickly learned, was an undeniable _yes_.

Everything felt real. The warm sunlight on her face. The dirt beneath her bare feet. The wind in her hair. The smell of bread as she walked by a bakery. Every sight, every touch, and every moment felt real to her.

Laura had assumed the experience would be something like a dream—a scene that would feel disconnected and blurry—but it was exactly the opposite. This virtual world was entirely untethered to her physical body’s senses. At the Silas Institute, she was dressed in a heavy wetsuit and lying face-up in a capsule that had been filled with a gooey liquid, but none of that mattered in the game. If she wasn’t completely sure that the world around her was the work of computer geniuses and clever programming, she would’ve had no reason to believe that this fantastic reality was not her own.

Eager to explore, Laura took to the narrow cobbled streets. The Silas Institute’s tour guides had described the medieval city of Sylsa as being a beginner’s paradise, and it was easy to see why. Within the town, combat was strictly recreational. Sylsa was a location where casual players could safely congregate. It was a city full of shops, street performers, and fun activities for the whole family. The architecture and the stores were undeniably beautiful, but Sylsa was merely Level 1. To a true player, the game had only just begun.

With no strategic plan in place, Laura was unsure of what her first game move should be, so she let the winding streets lead her into the heart of the city. She was lost and mindlessly wandering, but that was alright with her. She had enrolled to participate in the Silas Institute’s study for the experience, not to fulfill any roleplaying passions. She had entered Distant Worlds with no prior knowledge of the game’s plots and without any preconceived notions of how the game should be played. Though a part of her did feel like she might be wasting time, she was content to simply wander.

The city was beautiful, and the various playable creatures were fascinating to see up close in person. The selected realm had allowed Laura to choose between nine species: human, vampire, enchanter, elf, rogue, orc, fairy, elemental, and werewolf. The fairies were her favorite to watch. A fairy was no larger than a cherub, but able to fly with precision and speed while vibrantly glowing with colorful auras. Getting used to the orcs, on the other hand, was a bit more of an adjustment. Their thick necks, sage-colored skin, and massive burly bodies clashed with their otherwise human features. The last species that was easy to pick out from a crowd were the elves, with their exceptional height and distinct pointed ears. Everyone else, for the most part, looked too much alike to classify from appearance alone.

As Laura neared a tavern, she decided to take a look inside. It was dark, lit only by the front windows and oddly placed candles. The floor hadn’t been swept in ages, and the remnants of a fistfight were evident in a pile of broken wooden chairs by the door. All things considered, it was fairly underwhelming.

“What can I get for you?” The barkeep called out to Laura while he served a jug of ale to a pair of orcs in the corner. As he crossed the musty tavern, he caught sight of Laura’s bare feet. He tensed, then said, “We don’t see much of your folk around here. A bit lost, are you?”

“No.” Laura lied, mostly to mask her confusion. “Not lost. I’m right where I want to be.”

The man chuckled as he took up his place behind the bar. With a click of his tongue, he asked, “I suppose that merry band of misfits must’ve sent for you then?”

Laura couldn’t quite tell if the barkeep’s question was a part of the game or not, but she nodded her head anyway. The Silas Institute tour guide had explained that Distant Worlds was a game about taking chances, pushing limits, and exploring your fantasies. A merry band of misfits sounded like the exact kind of people who could help her do that.

“Yes.” Laura answered. “That’s why I’m here.”

“You’re early, but the enchanter is already upstairs. Go on up if you like.” The barkeep gestured to a wooden staircase behind the drinking orcs, then turned to busy himself with work.

Thinking that perhaps she’d stumbled upon a quest or some other sort of scripted opportunity, Laura headed straight for the stairs. A loud creak followed each press of her foot against a wooden step, ensuring that whoever was upstairs would be aware of an approaching visitor. The second floor, while noticeably more neglected than the first had been, was like a well-lit hayloft. Though instead of piles of hay littering the floor, stools with missing legs, sacks of grain, and hefty barrels filled most of the space.

At the far end stood a large table with seven chairs, one of which was occupied by a person with their back to Laura. The person was hunched over as they carefully fiddled with an object in their hands. A tall magic staff rested against the wall to their side.

Overcoming her sudden hesitation, Laura cleared her throat and said, “Hi.”

The enchanter ceased all movement, then, very slowly, placed the object on the table before turning to look at Laura. Their eyes dropped to Laura’s bare feet and widened in surprise.

“An elemental.” The enchanter muttered, a smile creeping across their face. Brushing red hair from their eyes, they stood and approached Laura with caution. Finally, they said, “How fascinating. It’s as if the virtual gods have answered our prayers. Well, our figurative prayers. None of us are actually praying to any fictional deities. Then again, that could explain why you’re here. Maybe someone prayed in secret and in return the game sent you to us. It certainly wouldn’t be the strangest thing that’s happened here. Wait, how _did_ you find this place?”

Struggling to keep up, Laura could only answer, “I sort of just walked in. I thought this was going to be like a quest or something. Are you, um, a real person or are you part of the game?”

“You must be new.” They concluded before retaking their seat. The shimmery metallic octagon still sat on the table where they’d placed it. “My name is LaFontaine. I’m a real-life nonbinary university student majoring in biology…” They smiled. “But in this world, I’m a nonbinary enchanter who specializes in intelligence.”

After taking a moment to remember the kind of creature that she’d selected during the start-up menu, she said, “I’m Laura. Level 1 elemental. I picked fire as my specialty.”

“We’re all Level 1 in Sylsa.” LaFontaine explained. “In this game, levels are locations rather than indicators of individual experience. When you enter a new level, your power increases or decreases accordingly. It’s an effective way to keep player versus player combat fair. It also means that the combatants you face in the wild are evenly matched with your capabilities. Like any other realm in Distant Worlds, success here is ultimately achieved through strategy and teamwork. Can I ask why you chose fire as your specialty? Why not water, ground, or air?”

Laura gave a shrug and replied, “I guess I just assumed that no one would want to mess with the girl who could shoot flames out of her hands.”

“Have you committed to a team yet?” LaFontaine inquired, their tone serious. “If not, I’d love to introduce you to my colleagues.”

“Uh, sure. I’m not committed to anything.” Laura replied. She had the suspicion that she’d accidentally wandered into the right place at the right time, but her general lack of knowledge about the game left her wary.

“Please, sit.” LaFontaine waved a hand to the empty chairs around the table.

Fighting back the urge to ask what she was sure would come across as a dumb question, Laura took one of the many offered chairs and instead asked, “How many of your friends should I expect to meet?”

“Friends is a strong word.” LaFontaine sighed, arousing even more suspicion in Laura. “We’ve been stagnant at six members for almost two weeks now. The average team is built within the first two days of a player’s introduction to the game, but the six of us have had our fair share of trouble, er, fitting in. Look, I won’t sugarcoat the situation for you. We’re no one’s first choice. The elf and the vampire have clashing personalities, our human is easily frightened, the orc is overly trusting, the rogue has a busy home life that often limits her game time, and I myself have a myriad of shortcomings that are not the most attractive qualities for someone in my position to possess—namely, my naturally low social skills paired with an enchanter’s low charisma has already proved to be a difficult combination to overcome. Essentially, we’re the people that no one else wants to work with. The reject pile, if you will.”

After processing LaFontaine’s admittedly poor pitch, Laura said, “I think I understand why the barkeep called you a merry band of misfits now.”

“Before you say no to us…” LaFontaine paused to choose their words carefully. “I feel compelled to warn you that very few teams would be willing to work with an elemental. Being skilled in dark magic can make you powerful, yes, but that power will also weaken a team’s healer. Since human healers are the fundamental part of every team, it is highly unlikely that you would be able to find a better offer than us any time soon.”

“If that’s true, then why would your healer even want me around?” Laura wondered. She could see that LaFontaine was desperate for a seventh member to join their team, but she wasn’t sure what lengths the enchanter would go to secure her commitment. Laura wasn’t well informed about the game, but falling for a trap was certainly not on her to-do list.

“Perry may be timid, but she’s smart. I have reason to believe that the two of you could work out a balance to ensure that the presence of your dark magic would not interfere with her ability to heal. Myself and our vampire have the exact same issue with my light magic affecting her strength. There are simple tricks to get around the disadvantages found with enchanters and vampires working together, but I’ll admit there isn’t much preexisting data on elementals and healers doing the same. It would be up to trial and error, which means that our current battle plans would have to be reexamined, but it’s possible. I’m sure of it. Together, we could all make it work. That’s what Distant Worlds is all about: working together.”

Laura was sold on the idea, but she didn’t want to appear overly enthusiastic. Casually, she replied, “Okay. I’ll meet the team. No promises though.”

“Great! I’ll send word for everyone to join us immediately.” LaFontaine replied while digging through their coat pocket. They withdrew a small crystal ball, shook it twice, waited for the cloudy substance within to turn a bright shade of yellow, then dropped the orb back into their pocket. “I both love and hate that the game runs simultaneous with real-life time. Creating a schedule that can work for six people hasn’t been easy. What’s your availability like?”

“I’m very available.” Laura answered. As an afterthought, she explained, “I just got back home for the summer. I’m a university student too. Journalism.”

LaFontaine began to fiddle with their octagonal object again as they said, “Oh, that’s perfect. The whole team will be on break from classes then. A few us have jobs to work around, but this gives us much more time to work with than if we’d joined during the middle of a semester.”

“So everyone is our age?” Laura asked.

“More or less.” LaFontaine nodded.

“And you said the team is made up of…”

“Pending your addition to the team, we’ll have an elemental, enchanter, human, elf, rogue, orc, and vampire.”

Laura pondered that for a moment, then asked, “What’s everyone like?”

While distractedly flipping and prodding the octagon, LaFontaine answered, “It’s an interesting group. Like I said, the truth is that we’re a team because no one else would have us. We’ve never been able to make a unanimous decision on anything, and there’s already open animosity between some of the members. Honestly, there is a substantial probability that we won’t even make it through Level 2 with all of our lives still intact.” They paused to look up at Laura. “But we’re damn sure going to try.”

\--

The wait for the other team members to arrive lasted a full three hours. During that time, Laura learned much from LaFontaine about the rules of the game and the lore of their current fantasy realm. Time had flown by quickly, with each member sauntering in one by one. This gave Laura the opportunity to make a decent first impression on each of them, without having to pitch herself to an entire group at once.

First there was Perry, the human healer who specialized in potions. Just as LaFontaine had predicted, Perry was hesitant to work with an elemental but desperate enough to accept the challenge. Then came Kirsch, an orc with impressive endurance; Danny, an elf with a gift for traps; and Mattie, a stealth-favoring rogue. While they waited for Carmilla—whom LaFontaine had described as being a ‘stubborn, sword-wielding vampire hellbent on perfecting blood magic’—Laura mostly sat back and observed.

Again, Laura was amazed at how lifelike the game felt. As she looked around the table, all she could think about was how incredibly real everything seemed. Kirsch the orc, with his low-quality leather armor and his chipped battle-axe, looked _real_. As did Danny the elf, with her wooden bow and arrows, and Mattie the rogue, with her black cloak and collection of sharp daggers. Even the octagonal object that consumed LaFontaine’s attention and the bubbling potions being brewed by Perry looked so real that it was becoming difficult for Laura to remember everything was just pixels in her head. 

“Finally.” Mattie released a sigh of relief as the final member of their party reached the top of staircase. “Let’s get this meeting started, shall we? I propose that we formally discuss the addition of Laura Hollis as our seventh member, take a five minute recess, then vote.”

The others began to quietly bicker over the proper proceedings, but Laura’s attention was focused solely on the approaching vampire. Carmilla was every bit as irresistibly alluring as a vampire should be. Her black outfit was similar to Mattie’s, though she lacked both a cloak and sleeves. Her arms were bare, apart from a pair of leather cuffs on her wrists. It wasn’t until she took her seat at the table that her dark eyes finally landed on Laura, who quickly averted her stare.

“Alright.” LaFontaine carefully placed their metallic octagon on the table, then more properly addressed the group. “So, the majority agrees to follow Mattie’s recommended schedule. What was originally going to be a routine meeting concerning the team’s name and current item inventory, is now a meeting about the potential addition of our seventh and final member. As most of you already know, we are joined today by Laura Hollis. Today is her first day of gameplay, and, like the rest of us, she’s a university student on summer break. Any questions or concerns?”

Mattie lowered the hood of her cloak, looked down the table to Perry, and asked, “The fact that she’s an elemental doesn’t bother you?”

The question was effective in gaining the full attention of Carmilla, who had previously looked about as interested in the meeting as a teenager in detention.

“I have my reservations.” Perry admitted. “But I’m more than willing to work with Laura if her inclusion means that we can finally be legitimized.”

Agreeing, Danny added, “We’re all restless. None of us joined this game to stay in Level 1. I say we take our chances with an elemental. If we fail, oh well. Trying and failing is better than sitting around doing nothing.”

“Let’s go for it!” Kirsch exclaimed, his cheerful demeanor and normal human speaking voice in stark contrast to his intimidating physique.

In a clinical tone, LaFontaine said, “I believe that having an elemental on our team could give us a great strategic advantage over those who are less willing to take the risk.”

Mattie mulled it over before replying, “As long as our healer can perform adequately, I see no reason to oppose.”

Carmilla gave a shrug, looked directly at Laura, and said, “Consider me indifferent.”

“Huh. That’s interesting.” LaFontaine gave a laugh. “We actually just agreed on something unanimously.”

“Indifference is not approval.” Carmilla quickly corrected, her eyes still burning into Laura. “We’ve yet to see if the barefoot wonder is even worth the trouble.”

Jumping to Laura’s defense, Danny’s pointed ears turned red as she said, “None of us have been given the chance to prove that we’re worthy of our place on the team, yourself included.”

Carmilla rolled her eyes and returned to looking utterly disinterested in the meeting.

“Okay.” LaFontaine drew back the group’s attention. “Well, since we have no member who opposes Laura’s addition to the team, I think that it is now appropriately time to decide on a name for ourselves.”

Kirsch’s hand shot into the air, as if he was in a classroom waiting to be called on.

“Uh, yes, Kirsch? You have a suggestion?” LaFontaine inquired.

“Dudes, hear me out…” He smiled widely then offered, “Team Rainbow.”

“Ah, yes. _Team Rainbow_.” Mattie mocked. “The fearsome Team Rainbow. No one will ever dare challenge the menacing Team Rainbow!”

Sulking, Kirsch crossed his large arms and fired back, “I don’t see you coming up with any cool names!”

Ignoring Kirsch, Mattie directed her attention to LaFontaine as she said, “Where is our five-minute recess? I have an important phone call to make on the outside.”

Looking a bit defeated, LaFontaine brought up a hand and said, “A five-minute recess is now—”

A distant boom followed by the unmistakable sound of villagers screaming in peril reached the second floor of the tavern. The unnamed team glanced amongst themselves, each waiting for someone else to provide an explanation.

Finally, Danny stood from the table and said, “Okay. This is it. No more sitting around arguing. No more breaks like we’re in a business meeting. We’re in this game to have fun. To be people that we can’t be in the outside world. That explosion is the game calling to us. We have our seventh member, we don’t have to stay in Level 1 anymore. We can do what we all came here to do.”

“I agree.” LaFontaine followed Danny’s example by standing from their chair. “The blast came from the direction of the Trelayu Forest. Every starting team in Sylsa will be heading there now. This would be the optimal time to use the chaos as a distraction to advance ourselves. Depending on what caused the explosion, we could quite possibly sneak through Level 2 undetected by adversaries. All those in favor?”

Causing the entire table to move as he stood, Kirsch showed his approval.

“In favor of what?” Mattie questioned from her seat. “Of running head first into an unknown challenge that we could otherwise avoid? Our elemental hardly knows how to walk on two legs.”

Perry stood. Quietly, she said, “There’s no one in Sylsa who even knows how to train an elemental. They’re too rare. She will simply have to learn as she plays. Is that alright with you, Laura?”

“Yes.” Laura stood from the table and squared her shoulders, trying to make herself appear confident. She could feel Carmilla’s gaze on her, but she chose to ignore the vampire out of fear that her façade would crack if she allowed herself to look back.

Smugly, Danny said to Carmilla and Mattie, “Looks like you’re outvoted.”

Mattie, unperturbed, smiled up at Danny and replied, “If the new girl gets Perry killed, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

\--

Laura stood nervously on the outskirts of town. Before her was a towering forest, dense with trees and underbrush. Directly in front of her was a large directional sign that read: “LEVEL 2 - TRELAYU FOREST (DAY)”. Dark smoke could be seen billowing up to the clouds from a mile or so within the forest.

Just as LaFontaine had predicted, the explosion had stirred a frenzy of activity. Dozens of players could be seen leaving the safety of Sylsa to run in the direction of the smoke.

“Are you ready for this, Laura?” LaFontaine asked as the team ventured forth. “Crossing beyond this sign means that we can not only encounter adversaries, but we can lose lives. Each of us having three lives may sound like a lot, but if even just one member loses all three, the whole team would have to completely start over.”

“Yes, I’m ready. Definitely yes. I’m like so ready you don’t even know. I was born ready.” Laura knew her answer was lame even as she was saying it, but the words spilled from her mouth before she could think of anything clever.

“Do you even know how to fight?” Mattie asked Laura skeptically as she navigated the terrain with ease. Her graceful movements through the forest hardly made a sound, unlike Kirsch, who barreled through the thick underbrush with the subtly of a tank.

“Sure.” Laura shrugged as nonchalantly as she could manage. “I mean, really, how hard could it be?”

Mattie gave a small condescending laugh then sped up her pace so that she could join the conversation taking place between Danny and Perry.

“Don’t worry.” LaFontaine said to Laura as the view of Sylsa behind them became completely obscured by trees. “We’ll do our best to help you learn as quickly as possible. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.”

Laura nodded then turned her focus to the task of trekking through the forest without tripping over a vine or tree root.

A cool fog had crept into the scene, no doubt a programmed effect to give the forest an eerie aesthetic. The treetops overhead blocked out the sun except for a few sunbeams that broke through the shadows. The sounds of woodland creatures ran on an endless loop around them.

“Hey, look!” Danny pointed ahead. “There’s a trail coming up.”

“A trail?” Perry’s paranoia was evident in her tone. “We should avoid that. It’s probably a trap, right? We’ve hardly been walking for more than five minutes. Why would we just happen to stumble upon a trail? There’ll surely be an ambush waiting for us on something like that!”

Mattie chuckled as she covered her head with the hood of her black cloak. She reached inside the cloak and withdrew a sharp dagger. Twirling it skillfully in her hand, she replied, “Avoiding all the fun is no way to play this game. We need to practice, or we’ll find ourselves being overwhelmed later.”

“All in favor of taking the trail?” LaFontaine asked while raising their hand to show support.

All members of the team raised a hand in agreement, with the exception of Perry.

“Fine.” The healer huffed defeatedly. “But if this leads us to whatever that explosion nonsense was all about, we might regret it.”

From the back of the pack, Carmilla smirked and sarcastically said, “We’ve got our new secret weapon. What could possibly go wrong?”

Laura intentionally slowed her pace so that she would be closer to Carmilla. Laura was immensely intimidated by the vampire, but she knew that something had to be said sooner rather than later.

With Carmilla now walking at her side, Laura quietly said to her, “Look, I know we just met and I’m a new player, but your lack of faith in me isn’t really helping the situation.”

“Save your energy, barefoot. I’m not here to make friends.” She replied coldly.

Confused, Laura looked to the five players walking in front of them on the trail, then asked her, “Why are you playing with a team if you don’t want to make friends?”

“Are you honestly that clueless?” She frowned. “The game forces you to play with a team. I’m here out of necessity. That’s it.”

“Okay, but no one is forcing you to play this game.” Laura pointed out.

Annoyed, Carmilla rolled her eyes and said, “Just accept that we’re not going to be friends and get over it. Everyone else has.”

“That’s a pretty terrible attitude to have. How are we supposed to trust each other?” Laura asked.

“We don’t need trust. We need a common goal.” She answered dryly.

Laura was dumbfounded. She couldn’t believe that someone could be so adamantly against making friends in a game that was based entirely around the concept of teamwork. As she tried to think of a witty reply, Laura found herself growing distracted by the flawless features of the vampire beside her. Carmilla’s breathtaking beauty was almost too unbelievable to be real. Laura couldn’t help but wonder if the game was somehow enhancing the girl’s natural features to make her even more attractive to other players. In a virtual world where anything is possible, it was all too easy to doubt even the simplest of things.

Just as Carmilla caught Laura staring, a high-pitched scream came from the front. Laura looked ahead just in time to see a pair of bandits roll out from the underbrush to block the trail. From behind, a second pair of bandits mirrored the movements of the first. The adversaries wore matching camouflage outfits, held lassoes in their hands, and each shared a generic duplicated face.

The team stood frozen with indecision, each member waiting for someone else to say what they should do. The bandits quickly took advantage of the team’s shortcoming. Each adversary brought up his lasso in unison, twirled the rope overhead, and launched it forward.

Chaos ensued.

The team scattered in different directions. All but Kirsch attempted to flee the trail in search for cover. Finding a large tree to cower behind, Laura realized that her knees were shaking and her heart was racing. She’d been warned several times that the combat within Distant Worlds would feel real, but she hadn’t expected to have such a visceral reaction.

With genuine fear causing adrenaline to pump through her body, Laura peeked around the tree to survey the trail. Two of the bandits had their lassoes around Kirsch’s thick neck, both comically attempting to pull the heavy orc to the ground but failing miserably. On the other side of the trail, Laura could see a third bandit chasing after Danny and Perry through the woods with his lasso twirling over his head. Though Laura searched for him, she couldn’t find the fourth bandit anywhere in sight.

From behind a tree somewhere on Laura’s right, a yellow beam of shimmery magical light shot through the air and knocked one of the bandits face first into the dirt. Seizing the opportunity, Kirsch removed the ropes from around his neck and yanked them from the bandits’ hands. In a smooth tuck-and-roll action, Carmilla jumped out of the underbrush and roundhouse kicked the standing bandit on the side of his head. He fell to the ground, unconscious. Laura’s jaw dropped in awe as she watched the encounter unfold.

“They’re after Perry!” Kirsch quickly informed Carmilla and the approaching LaFontaine.

Angry, though clearly enjoying herself, Carmilla took off running in the direction that Kirsch pointed. The orc and the enchanter followed her lead.

Still cowering behind the tree, Laura whispered to herself, “Come on. You can do this. It’s just a game. Yeah. Nothing to be worried about. It’s just a game. You’ve totally got this.”

Though her pep-talk did little more than instill an obvious false sense of confidence, Laura stepped away from the tree and rushed after her new teammates. It was difficult to keep an eye on the others while simultaneously ensuring that she would not trip in her haste, but she performed fairly well under the circumstances.

As she used the back of her hand to wipe sweat from her brow, the fourth bandit suddenly dropped into her path from a tree branch overhead. Laura shrieked, skidded to a halt, then stumbled backwards until ultimately falling onto her back. The bandit’s lasso was already twirling through the air by the time Laura dizzily attempted to crawl away from him.

“Oh crap.” Laura groaned, accepting her doomed fate as the noose of the lasso encircled her feet. The bandit jerked the rope back, causing the lasso to tighten. He flashed her a sickeningly maniacal smile as he began to reel in the rope, dragging her toward him across the forest floor.

From the shadows, a cloaked figure crept up behind the bandit’s back. He cried out in pain, dropped the rope from his hands, and fell to his knees. Laura watched in stunned silence as the bandit gave one final grunt, the life draining from his face. He slumped forward, and Mattie stood triumphantly over his body with a bloody dagger in her hand and a satisfied grin on her face.

“Thanks.” Laura said weakly as she watched Mattie wipe her dagger clean on the bandit’s coat. Feeling a bit numb, Laura reached down and freed her legs from the rope with shaky hands. It took several wobbly attempts before she was able to fully get back on her feet.

Mattie contemptuously looked Laura up and down before saying, “Pull yourself together. You look like a scared little mouse.”

“I’ve never been attacked like that before. It felt so real.” Laura admitted quietly. “The look in his eyes…he looked like he wanted to kill me.”

Mattie kept a watchful eye on their surroundings as she replied, “Killing you is exactly what he would’ve done. His sole objective is to kill players. It’s part of the game. You’d better get used to fighting things that want to kill you, and fast. A few bandits with lassoes will look like child’s play when the real fun begins.”

The thundering sounds of an orc’s rushing footsteps alerted the girls to forthcoming action. Laura searched all around her, trying to discern which direction Kirsch was approaching from, and, much to her surprise, both the bandit’s body and the rogue had vanished when she turned back around.

“Mattie?” Laura’s call was carried away on the wind. Realizing that she was once again on her own, her fear returned in full force.

The distinct sound of Kirsch roaring out a battle-cry reached Laura’s ears moments before a bandit came hastily running into view. The final adversary was quick on his feet, which was surprising considering that a lassoed human body was slung over his shoulder. Perry helplessly beat her fists against the bandit’s back whilst screaming for Kirsch to run faster. The orc, visibly winded, was moving at a sluggish top speed as he chased after them.

“Stop him!”

Laura jumped, not having noticed Carmilla until she was standing right beside her.

“Stop him!” Carmilla repeated urgently. “If we lose one of our healer’s lives this close to Sylsa, we’ll be the biggest joke this game has ever seen. You have to stop him.”

“Me?” Laura’s panic was evident in her voice. The bandit was moving swiftly through the forest, it would only be mere moments before he realized that the two girls were in his current path. “I can’t stop him. I-I don’t know how.”

“Use your powers!” Carmilla snapped at Laura as she reached into the pocket of her pants and withdrew _an entire sword_. Laura gawked at the impossible feat before remembering where she was.

“I don’t know what I’m doing.” Laura admitted, completely bewildered. There was no time to pretend, and no point.

With a disgruntled growl, Carmilla grabbed Laura by the wrist, forced her to raise her right hand, and directed the palm at the oncoming bandit.

“Figure it out.” Carmilla demanded through gritted teeth. “Feel the elements around yourself. Become one with nature. Do whatever it takes to make shit happen!”

Overwhelmed, by pressure and by the feeling of Carmilla’s secure grip on her wrist, Laura closed her eyes. She forced herself to focus on the dirt beneath her feet, the bead of sweat rolling along her temple, the air filling her lungs, and the heat of Carmilla’s touch on her skin. To her pleasant surprise, something powerful stirred within her, and the palms of her hands began to warm as if she’d placed them around a steaming mug of coffee.

Laura could feel Carmilla’s grip on her wrist begin to loosen, which caused her to plead, “Don’t let go.”

In response, the vampire tightened her hold even more. With Carmilla’s hand securely around her wrist, Laura used every fiber of her being to will the warmth in her palm to grow stronger.

“Laura.” Carmilla’s voice was a tense but soft warning, much unlike her former tone.

Laura opened her eyes to find that her raised hand was engulfed by a dancing flame. The bandit was no more than ten feet away, with Perry still struggling to free herself on his shoulder. His gaze locked with Laura’s and he stopped short. The adversary stared at Laura’s flaming hand with immense fear in his eyes, as if the devil itself had come for him.

“Let her go.” Laura demanded, drawing strength from Carmilla’s close presence.

With Kirsch nearing behind him and Laura’s hand on fire in front of him, the bandit panicked. He let go of Perry, allowing her to roll off his shoulder and hit the ground, then turned to his left to make a run for it. He proceeded a full two steps before an arrow whizzed through the air and shot directly into his chest. Immediately, lifelessly, he fell to the ground.

Laura released a breath that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding in, and the flame around her hand extinguished itself. Her exhausted arm fell limp, now held up only by Carmilla’s grip. The vampire slowly, carefully, lowered Laura’s arm before letting go. Laura stared at Carmilla, who wordlessly stared back at her. Neither girl understood the full extent of what they’d just done, of what they’d set in motion, but both felt it.

“Uh, guys, can I get a little help over here?” Perry called out to them as she tried to free herself from the bandit’s tangled rope.   

“Don’t worry, I got you.” Kirsch announced as he finally reached them, still panting heavily. He kneeled and began to unravel the lasso from Perry’s legs as Mattie, Danny, and LaFontaine joined them from different directions.

Danny plucked her arrow from the bandit’s chest and returned it to the quiver on her back. Turning to Laura she smiled and said, “You did great.”

“You’re the one who got him.” Laura deflected the compliment.

“Yeah, but you distracted him long enough for me to line up the perfect shot.” Danny replied. She tucked her long red hair behind her pointed ears and kneeled on Perry’s other side to assist Kirsch in freeing the human.

LaFontaine spiked the pointed end of their magic staff into the dirt and placed their hands on their hips. They looked over the team and gave a pleased nod before stating, “I’d say that went rather well.”

Mattie, while pulling back the hood of her cloak, approached Laura and Carmilla and said, “Your hand is burned.”

Laura brought up her hands to check, flipping them back and forth in search for an injury but finding none. It was only when Carmilla raised the hand that had been holding her wrist that she realized which one of them Mattie’s words had been directed to.

“So it is.” Carmilla muttered emotionlessly as she displayed the burn. The wound started at the tip of her index finger, stretched along the curve of her hand, and ended at her thumbnail.  

“Oh my god. I’m so sorry.” Laura lowered her own hands in shame. She’d asked Carmilla not to let go of her in fear that she would lose the power that she’d found, but she never would’ve asked the vampire to burn herself for it.

Carmilla balled the hand into a fist and dropped it to her side. Indifferently, she replied, “It’s fine. Perry can heal it. That’s what she’s here for.”

Guilt sat heavy in Laura’s stomach. “You should’ve said—”

“It’s _fine_.” Carmilla insisted.

Mattie watched the two of them curiously, almost as if she could sense that a new inexplicable tension was between them.

“She’s free!” Kirsch pumped his massive fists into the air. Grinning, he looked around at his companions and asked, “What’s next, Team Rainbow?”

In unison, Carmilla and Danny scoffed, Perry frowned, and LaFontaine shook their head.

Pinching the bridge of her nose to further show her disapproval, Mattie answered, “We are not calling ourselves Team Rainbow.”

Pouting, Kirsch replied, “But all the top ranked teams in Distant Worlds have color names! Gold, Red, Cyan, everybody knows those dudes. Color names are cool.”

“Team Rainbow is not cool!” Mattie threw up her hands.

Kirsch wasn’t backing down. “Well, no one is suggesting anything cooler, so, actually, as a matter of fact, Team Rainbow is the coolest name that’s been said so far.”

The familiar bickering kicked up again, with everyone but Carmilla and Laura jumping to get their two cents in.

“We’re starting to look like quite the dysfunctional family.” Laura joked. She checked to see if Carmilla was amused, but found the exact opposite.

Ignoring Laura, the vampire turned, one hand burned and the other still wielding a large sword, and promptly walked off to be alone. Too tired to concern herself over the many mysteries of Carmilla, Laura sighed and looked back at her arguing teammates. She felt a smile grow across her face as she watched them throw idle threats at each other.

This was the happiest that she’d been in a long time, and the game had only just begun.


	2. Distract The Bear

“That’s okay. Try again. You can do this, Laura.” It was clear from Danny’s lackluster words of encouragement that she had begun to lose her optimism.

For the umpteenth time that hour, Laura raised the palm of her right hand and aimed it at a marked tree. Breath held and arm shaking, she begged the virtual gods for a spark of light. A puff of smoke. Anything.

Again, nothing happened.

Frustrated, Laura groaned and dropped her hand. She turned away from the tree, unable to look at the unscathed bark any longer.

“It’s okay.” Danny did her best to hide her disappointment, but Laura knew. She could see the concern in everyone’s faces—Carmilla excluded, of course. While the rest of the team used each break from travel to practice their skills, the vampire typically elected to wander the surrounding forest on her own.

Laura let out an exasperated sigh, and said, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”

“None of us became experts overnight.” Danny reassured her. She gestured to the group. “I mean, look at us…we’re still nowhere close to being experts. LaFontaine is overly obsessed with trying to figure out that little artifact they bought in Sylsa; Mattie can’t stay logged in for more than an hour without having to go reply to an email or make a damn phone call; Carmilla is off doing whatever it is that Carmilla does; Perry had a potion _explode_ in her face earlier; and Kirsch is literally over there chasing a butterfly. It’s okay that you’re having a hard time with this. The rest of us have had two weeks to learn how to play, but we still have a lot of work to do, too.”

Slightly comforted, but mostly embarrassed, Laura lowered her head in shame. “I don’t understand why this is so hard for me to figure out. I feel exhausted, but I haven’t even done anything yet.”

“I didn’t sleep my first night back in the real world either.” Danny replied knowingly. “We’re all still getting used to how things work in this game. None of us have spent this much time logged in together. It’s an adjustment we’re all working through. You’re not alone.”

“Thanks.” Laura forced a small smile. She was grateful for Danny’s help, but the elf wasn’t the teammate who Laura wished she could spend some one-on-one time with.

“Ah ha!” Perry’s excited shout gained the attention of her peers. From where she sat on a fallen tree, the healer victoriously lifted her small cauldron into the air. The liquid within looked to be nothing more than water, but Laura had watched Perry spend every break carefully adding ingredients to the brew in the precise order that was listed in the handwritten recipe book that she’d purchased in Sylsa.

LaFontaine dropped their octagonal artifact into their pocket, stood to lean over the cauldron for a closer look, then said, “The health potion appears to be in excellent condition. Well done.”

“I’ll fetch Carmilla.” Mattie announced before swiftly disappearing into the forest. Though Laura had seen the rogue and vampire move at enhanced speeds at least a dozen times now, it still amazed her just how quickly one of them could slip in and out of view.

Kirsch knelt on the ground opposite of Perry. He curiously examined the potion, even going as far as to take a sniff of it. Displeased with the smell, he scrunched up his nose and asked, “How much do you have to drink for it to work?”

“That depends on the wound. And on the quality of the ingredients.” Perry explained as she placed the small cauldron in her lap. She sent an anxious glance Laura’s way, then added, “And there’s our added issue of dark magic tampering with my ability.”

LaFontaine placed a comforting hand on Perry’s shoulder and said, “I’ll use my intelligence specialty to keep a detailed record of the conditions each potion is brewed under. With some trial and error, we should be able to learn how to properly compensate for Laura’s dark magic.”

Mattie returned with Carmilla trailing close behind. The team gathered around Perry in a circle to watch as she cautiously poured the contents of her cauldron into a leather canteen. After filling it to the brim, Perry offered the canteen to Carmilla. The vampire carefully used both hands to take the canteen, causing Laura to cringe as the pink damaged skin of Carmilla’s hand became visible.

Perry pointed to a line from her book of potion recipes as she said, “One mouthful ought to suffice.”

Carmilla brought the opening of the canteen to her mouth, readied herself, then took a decent swig of the potion. With a clear look of disgust on her face, she handed the canteen back to Perry while muttering, “Tastes like cough syrup and piss.”

“I never said it would taste good.” Perry replied offhandedly as she securely tied shut the opening of the canteen and attached it to her utility belt.

Kirsch scratched his head and asked, “So how long will it take to work?”

Perry stood and examined the wound on Carmilla’s outstretched hand. Nervously, she answered, “The results should’ve been instantaneous.”

Carmilla backed away from Perry and moved her hand out of view. Before anyone could comment further on the failed potion, she said, “We should keep moving. We’re wasting time here.”

The vampire promptly turned in the direction of the trail and began walking, not bothering to wait for the others. A beat passed where the group assumed that something would be said, but no one spoke.

Silently, they collected their belongings and hurried to catch up with Carmilla.

\--

A very simple question had been asked by the researchers at the Silas Institute when Laura had emerged from her first afternoon inside Distant Worlds: was there anything in the game that didn’t feel authentically real? She’d answered ‘no’ to their question, but, as the hours flew by in her second day of play, she began to realize just how wrong she’d been. Time, as it turned out, did not feel real in Distant Worlds.

On the outside, morning had turned into afternoon, then to evening, and eventually to night. The same could not be said for Level 2 of their fantasy realm. The sun did not move in the sky. It remained fixed in its programmed position. The scenery of seemingly endless trees and underbrush had long ago begun to blend together; the team could’ve been walking in circles for all Laura knew. It was incredibly easy to forget about the outside world in a place like that, and even easier to forget just how much time was passing by. 

“Are we there yet?”

“Kirsch, I swear to the virtual gods, if you ask that one more time—”

Before Danny could get out the rest of her threat, the terrifying sound of a massive animal’s roar followed by four paws hitting the ground in rapid succession cut her off. The team stopped and faced the oncoming bear, then proceeded to run away screaming.

“Uh, dudes, what do we do?” Kirsch asked, already falling behind the others as they ran through the forest.

After nearly tripping over their own feet, LaFontaine answered, “Protect Perry! Humans are naturally the weakest. The bear will probably try to target her first.”

In her position at the front of the team, Mattie gracefully jumped off the ground, grabbed onto a low-hanging branch, and pulled herself up onto it. Lying on her stomach across the branch, she offered her hand down to Perry.

“I can’t reach!” Perry shouted, panic in her voice.

Without hesitation, Danny dropped to her hands and knees on the forest floor so that Perry could use her as a stepping stool. Noticing the bold move, Carmilla, Kirsch, LaFontaine, and Laura stopped and formed a protective barrier. The bear continued to charge directly at them, its eyes pure red and its teeth bared.

Carmilla reached into her pocket and withdrew her sword as she shouted at LaFontaine, “Use one of your spells!”

LaFontaine shook their head and replied, “If I were to use a spell powerful enough to affect a creature of that size while you and I are standing so close, my light magic would completely deplete your strength. You’d be defenseless.”

Growing angry, Carmilla snapped, “I don’t have time to give you any space, and you don’t have time to argue.”

With the bear no more than seconds away from reaching them, LaFontaine accepted Carmilla’s words and pointed the crystal tip of their staff at the bear. A yellow streak of electricity sparked from the magic staff and cracked through the air, hitting the bear between its red eyes. The bear cried out in pain as it skidded to a full stop. The beast furiously shook its head from side to side, gave a loud roar that vibrated in their chests, then set its sights back on the team. Burnt fur sizzled on the bear’s forehead as it glowered at them.

“Uh…” LaFontaine gulped. “I think I might’ve just made it angrier.”

“Should I try to fight it?” Kirsch suggested, his fists raised and ready.

With Perry safely being guarded by Mattie in the tree, Danny joined the line with her bow in hand and an arrow already aimed at their furry adversary. To answer Kirsch, she said, “Those teeth will rip through anything it can get its paws on. You’re strong, but you’re made of flesh just like the rest of us. That thing will play with you like a chewtoy.”

“Anyone got any better ideas?” Carmilla asked the group as they watched the bear begin to pace from side to side.

Not sounding very confident, Danny replied, “I have a trap that might be strong enough to stop a bear, but it would take some time to set. Time we don’t have.”

Carmilla tightened her grip on her sword, causing the burnt skin of her hand to stretch. The sword visibly shook despite the vampire’s best efforts to appear unaffected by the pain. With her jaw clenched, Carmilla said to Danny, “Make the trap. We’ll distract the bear.”

As if understanding that a challenge had been presented to it, the bear once again began to charge at them. The team split up, with Danny taking cover in the tree, Kirsch and LaFontaine running to the left, and Carmilla and Laura running to the right. Pure fear kicked Laura in the chest as she glanced over her shoulder to find that the bear had chosen to pursue her and the vampire over the others.

“What do we do?” Laura frantically asked Carmilla. The girls were running at top speed—all while skillfully jumping over masses of tangled vines and sidestepping thorn bushes like pros—but the bear was still gaining on them.

“There!” Carmilla used her good hand to point out a fallen tree. A hollow opening sat at one end, just large enough for a small body to squeeze into.

Carmilla threw her sword inside the opening and quickly slid into the safety of the hollow tree. Laura dropped to her knees and crawled inside after Carmilla. The bear reached the tree mere moments after Laura’s feet disappeared from its view. Viciously, the bear rammed into the side of the trunk.

Inside, Carmilla was as far back into the crawlspace as she could push herself, which left Laura sitting dangerously close to the opening. The bear’s long arm desperately swung into the opening as it tried to reach the girls, nearly clawing Laura’s legs with each attempted grab. In what little cramped space they had to work with, Carmilla made room for Laura and pulled her further into the hollowed tree.

With Laura now nearly completely on top of her, Carmilla muttered, “You’re heavier than you look.”

Still shaking from the ongoing bear attack, Laura ignored Carmilla and looked back at the opening. The bear tried to reach them a few more times, but eventually gave up. The large paw retreated from the opening, and the bear gave an unhappy growl before presumably leaving to search for the rest of their party.

They waited, only the sounds of their heavy breathing filling the crawlspace.

After cautiously listening for any sign that the bear might be waiting for them, Laura whispered, “Do you think it’s gone?”

“Maybe. I don’t know.” Carmilla answered distractedly.

Laura looked at the vampire beneath her, suddenly realizing just how awkward their predicament was. Carmilla avoided making eye contact, but was unable to hide the obvious look of discomfort on her face.

Unsure of what to say, Laura tried to make a joke. “What’s that look for? Am I really that heavy?”

With her jaw clenched, Carmilla grunted in response, “I’m sitting on my sword.”

“Oh!” Laura quickly repositioned herself. Placing her hands on either side of Carmilla’s shoulders, Laura lifted herself until her back was pressed flat against the inner trunk. Using the small space provided, Carmilla slipped her hand beneath herself and removed the sword. The vampire carefully slid the weapon down to the opening, wincing when her burnt hand accidently scratched against the tree.

Feeling especially guilty, Laura said to her, “I’m really sorry about your hand.”

“It’s fine.” Carmilla replied nonchalantly, still refusing to make eye contact with her in the cramped space.

“Stop saying that. It’s not fine.” Laura argued. “You’re hurting, and it’s all my fault. I caused that burn. _And_ I’m the reason Perry can’t heal it.”

Sounding particularly annoyed, Carmilla answered, “The pain isn’t real—nothing in this game is real. We feel pain here, but it’s not _real_. We only feel what our minds _think_ we should be feeling. It’s all in your head. If you ignore it, you don’t feel anything at all.”

“It can be all in your head and still hurt.” Laura countered. She wasn’t going to let Carmilla excuse this. The vampire was in pain, and it was Laura’s fault. That couldn’t just be swept away like it was nothing.

“What do you want?” Carmilla snapped, intensely glaring up at her now. “Do you want me to yell at you? Do you want me to hate you? You burnt me. It’s fine. Stop whining and just get over it already.”

“I…” Laura was stumped. She hadn’t really considered what kind of response from Carmilla she’d been looking for. “Sorry. You’re right. I won’t mention it again.”

An unexpected thump outside the tree caused them to freeze. They remained still, both awkwardly trying not to stare at the other. In the silence, Laura’s arms began to weaken.

“I can’t hold myself up much longer.” Laura whispered.

Carmilla made a show of dramatically rolling her eyes before saying, “You can relax. I don’t bite.”

Laura hesitated, then slowly lowered herself onto Carmilla. Without the malicious bear to distract her, the feeling of their warm bodies pressed together in a confined space was almost all-consuming.

To break the suffocating silence, and to keep her mind from wandering to inappropriate places, Laura jokingly asked, “So…does this make us friends yet?”

Carmilla looked like she wanted make a mean comment, but kept it to herself. Instead, she waited a beat, then said, “The bear should be gone by now.”

“Oh. Yeah. Probably.” Laura nodded. She tried to mask her disappointment, but Carmilla could see right through her.

Laura pushed herself off the vampire and shimmied down to the opening, careful not to cut herself on the sword. She poked her head outside, blinked through the sudden change in brightness, then cautiously lifted herself from the hollow tree. She brushed off her clothes as Carmilla joined her out in the open.

“Damn it.” Carmilla grumbled as she waved her sword around, testing her still depleted strength. “Note to self: never let an enchanter cast a high-power spell right next to you again.”

“Do you think that’s why Perry’s potion wouldn’t work for you?” Laura wondered. “Should I leave whenever she tries to make those?”

“Maybe. I don't know. Talk it over with her and LaF.” Carmilla sighed. She turned to walk in the direction they’d come from, but only managed to walk two steps before a large shadow crept over them. The girls slowly turned around to see the red-eyed bear standing on its hind legs, towering over them with its sharp teeth bared.

“It’s not real.” Laura had to remind herself. “It’s just a game.”

With little warning, the bear brought up a paw and slashed its claws through the air. Laura jumped back, accidentally knocking over Carmilla in the process. The bear dropped back down to all fours as it crawled over the hollow tree, its eyes still set on the girls.

Knowing that it was up to her to save the day, Laura moved to protectively stand over Carmilla. She raised her hand with her palm aimed at the bear, but, to no one’s surprise, nothing happened. No spark. No flame. No smoke.

Nothing.

“One with nature. One with nature.” Laura muttered repeatedly to herself. She tried to focus on the dirt beneath her toes and the wind in the trees, but the imminent threat of being mauled by a bear overpowered her concentration.

The bear stood up again, its red eyes menacingly looking down at the girls as it prepared to strike again.

Carmilla shifted so that she was on her knees just behind Laura’s right leg. She had time to save herself, but she didn’t. She could’ve dived for her sword, but she didn’t. Instead, Carmilla defenselessly stayed by Laura’s side.

Tensely, the vampire looked up at her and said, “What are you waiting for? Barbecue this fur ball!”

As the bear drew back its arm, claws sharp and ready to kill, Laura defeatedly replied, “I can’t.”

Thinking fast, Carmilla grabbed ahold of Laura’s legs and pulled them out from under her just before the bear’s arm swiped through the spot she’d been standing in. Tired of standing, the bear fell forward, its giant paws aimed right at the two girls on the ground. To escape, they quickly rolled away from each other.

Covered in clumps of moss and dirt, Laura jumped back to her feet in time to see the bear approaching Carmilla on all fours. Desperate to save her, Laura pointed both palms at the bear and screamed to get its attention. The bear ignored her, so she screamed louder. She screamed until her throat burned, until the feeling seeped into her blood and coursed throughout her shaking body, until she could feel it in the tips of her fingers. Until flames danced on her hands, burning hot and bright.

The bear, one swipe away from slicing up Carmilla, caught sight of the fire out of the corner of its eye. Its head turned back to look at Laura, its body frozen in place.

With power surging through her, Laura confidently demanded, “Back away from the vampire.”

The bear was able to let out a single growl before receiving two fireballs to the face. Blinded, the bear swung its paws wildly around itself as Carmilla crawled to safety. Laura sent a few more fireballs flying the bear’s way, giving Carmilla time to find her sword. With her weapon in hand, Carmilla angrily charged at the blinded burning bear and drove her sword down into its back. The creature fell to the ground with clumps of its fur still burning and its red eyes staring blankly ahead.

Laura stared down at the open flames on her hands, in awe of herself. There was so much power rooted deep within her body. It thrilled her to feel so capable after having felt hopeless for so long.

Carmilla smirked and said, “You’d better put those out before you hurt yourself, barefoot.”

Smiling, Laura looked up at her and replied, “That’s an odd way of saying ‘thank you for heroically saving my life, Laura’.”

Carmilla laughed and shook her head as she replied, “You want me to thank you for finally doing your damn job?”

“Hey, I’m working on less than twenty-four hours of experience here.” Laura reminded her. “I think I’m doing pretty good, all things considered.”

Yielding, Carmilla said, “You could be doing worse, I’ll give you that much.”

“Gee. Thanks.” Laura laughed.

The girls stood there saying nothing, their smiles still in place. There was undeniably a strong connection between them, but neither could understand it.

Losing her smile, Carmilla cleared her throat and said, “We, uh, should probably get back to the others before those morons get themselves killed without us.”

Laura didn’t want their alone time to end just yet, but there was no way for her to say that. Instead, she said, “Yeah. They’re all probably lost without us.”

The vampire turned to leave, and the flames on Laura’s hands went out.


	3. Our Little Secret

Laura reread the large directional sign—“LEVEL 3 - TRELAYU FOREST (NIGHT)”—but the words remained unchanged.

“Seriously?” Laura asked her team. “We just spent the past day and a half hiking through a forest, and now we have to do it all over again _in the dark_?”

The wall of darkness that stood before them—a seemingly endless night in the otherwise familiar eerie forest—looked as foreboding as it sounded.

“Our eyes will adjust to the lack of light.” LaFontaine replied. Their voice was calm, but they held a white-knuckled grip on their magic staff.

Mattie boldly stepped beyond the sign, then turned back to face the group. Annoyed at how long everyone else was taking, she said, “It’s not like we could ever see what was lurking in the shadows before. Now come on. Let’s get moving. We’re wasting time just standing around.”

One by one, each member of the team cautiously crossed into darkness.

Perry wrapped her arms around herself as they hiked and whined, “It’s colder here.”

“It’s night.” Mattie sneered. “What did you expect? A sauna? We’re not in the tropics, dear.”

Quietly, intending for only LaFontaine and Laura to hear her, Perry muttered, “Well _someone_ missed naptime today.”

Danny chuckled, having easily picked up Perry’s comment with her elven ears. 

Catching on, Mattie stopped and asked, “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.” Danny brushed her off, walking by her with little care.

Mattie threw a displeased glance at a nervous Perry, then demanded, “Tell me. I want to know what was said.”

“It’s nothing.” Danny repeated. The elf tried to keep walking, but was forced to stop when Carmilla purposefully moved into her path.

“Answer the question.” Carmilla instructed, her arms crossed over her chest as she glared up at the much taller elf. 

Visibly growing irritated, Danny replied, “Why don’t you just mind your own business?”

“Why don’t you make me.” Carmilla taunted with a smirk.

Finally realizing that a scuffle was occurring, Kirsch stopped and turned back to face the others. Pouting, he said, “Ugh! Dudes. Come on. Can’t we all just get along? All this fighting all the time…it’s not the Team Rainbow way.”

In unison, Mattie and Danny snapped, “We’re not Team Rainbow!”

LaFontaine let out a heavy sigh, then announced, “We really do need to decide on a team name. We can’t be recognized on the official ranking list if we don’t.”

To encourage the new topic of conversation, Perry asked, “How many teams are on the list again? The top one hundred?”

“Yes.” LaFontaine nodded. “Which means that we’ve still got a lot of work to do before we’re strong enough to make it on there.”

There was still tension hanging in the air, especially between Carmilla and Danny, but they let it drop as LaFontaine set the pace again.

“Who’s the top ranked team?” Laura asked out of curiosity, and to keep herself from focusing too much on how exceptionally creepy the forest was at night.

Carefully stepping over a large dip in the ground, LaFontaine answered, “Team Gold is at the top of the list.”

“Oh man!” Kirsch lit up with a goofy smile. “Team Gold is legendary! Gold is the only team that’s beaten every realm in the game. They’re insanely good. Like, there aren’t even words to do those players justice. That’s how awesome those dudes are.”

Danny rolled her eyes. “Not surprised you’re a Gold fanboy.”

“Who do you like instead?” Laura asked her.

“Team Red. Ranked number two.” She answered whilst ducking beneath a low branch. “They’re funnier. They’re smarter. They’re just better.”

“Then why are they ranked number two?” Laura wondered.

LaFontaine, the resident expert on all things Distant Worlds, replied, “A team’s rank is based on how far into each of the available realms the team has traveled. Team Gold is at the top of the list because, as Kirsch said, they’re the only people who’ve been able to beat the final level in every realm. Fantasy, apocalyptic, sci-fi, aquatic…they’ve conquered level ten in them all, which is incredibly difficult. They’re a very impressive team.”

Enthusiastically, Kirsch added, “Team Gold was one of the first teams ever. Back before the game expanded with new realms. Back when it was just this one.”

“Yes, that’s right.” LaFontaine gave an appreciative smile. “And they’ve held the number one ranking since the list was first introduced. No one has ever outranked them.”

“Not yet.” Danny interjected. “But Team Red can do it. I heard they’re getting close to the end of level ten in the sci-fi realm. And after they do that, Gold won’t be the only ones who’ve made it through every realm.”

“So what would happen to the ranking?” Laura asked. “How would they decide who gets to be ranked number one?”

“It would be a tie.” LaFontaine answered. “The two teams could return to level ten of a realm and fight it out amongst themselves in player versus player combat, but it’s more likely that they would wait for a new realm to be added and then race each other to the end of it.”

“None of that matters.” Mattie threw back over her shoulder, unable to keep her opinion to herself. “Team Cyan will surpass Red before long.”

“Cyan?” Danny laughed dryly. “Everyone knows those cheaters bought their way to the top.”

“There is no evidence to support those allegations.” Mattie argued as civilly as she could.

Confused, Laura asked, “How does someone cheat with money in a game like this?”

“Bribery on the outside.” Perry explained. “There have been several instances of Team Cyan conveniently finding high-powered weapons and ingredients to get them out of sticky situations.”

Though she was already losing interest in the discussion, Mattie flatly replied, “It’s called luck.”

“It’s called paying off the right programmers.” Danny corrected.

Mattie spun on her heels to face Danny. With malice in her voice, she said, “Listen, you insufferable—”

“Shut up!” Carmilla shouted, effectively silencing the rogue and the elf. Her exclamation surprised them all, including a few bats that had been hanging around in the treetops above. While pushing through the group to make herself the leader of the hike, Carmilla said, “You two sound like a pair of cranky old broads fighting over who can bake a better pie. Both your pies suck, by the way. Cyan this and Red that—it doesn’t matter! They’re both boring. You’re wasting your breath comparing them. Now, if you’ll remember where we are and _stay quiet_ , maybe we can make it through this level without attracting every kind of monster that might want to kill us.”

As Carmilla angrily led the way through the underbrush, Kirsch glanced around to the others and whispered, “So, like, is she in charge now? Like is she our leader? All the top ranked teams have leaders. Team Rainbow should have one, too.”

A cacophony of responses came at once, most sounding like “Kirsch, no” and “Kirsch, shut up” and even a colorful “your rainbow can eat my entire ass”.

Smiling to herself, Laura followed her grumbling team as they hiked through the forest.

\--

Laura stared intensely at the makeshift campfire pit, her palm shaking as she pointed it at the pile of sticks. She’d been attempting to get a fire going for several minutes, but had yet to see so much as a spark come from her hand.

Perry sat on a log nearby, her cauldron in her lap and a bored expression on her face, as she waited for Laura to make the fire. LaFontaine and Kirsch were searching the surrounding area, picking out the mushrooms and berries that Perry would need for her new recipe, while Danny and Mattie separately climbed neighboring trees to swipe bird eggs from their nests. Carmilla stood off to the side, leaning against a tree and ignoring the rest of the team.

Despite her determination not to, Laura let her gaze wander over to the vampire. A stream of moonlight managed to slip through the treetops, bathing Carmilla with a beautiful angelic glow. Laura watched intently as the vampire stretched her arms over her head, her sleeveless leather top moving just high enough to reveal the soft skin of her midriff. To Laura’s surprise, the palm of her raised hand began to buzz with warmth before sparks rapidly spurted from it. The sticks and twigs caught fire, and Laura closed her hand into a fist to cease its sudden outburst of activity.

Carmilla gave a glance her way, causing Laura to quickly avert her gaze. As her eyes roamed for anywhere else to look, she happened to notice that Perry was watching her with a peculiar grin on her face. A blush covered Laura’s cheeks as she realized Perry had witnessed the entire ordeal.

Now twice as embarrassed, Laura gestured to the fire and said, “Have fun.”  

Perry gave her a knowing look and said, “It won’t be nearly as much fun as you’re about to have, I’m sure.”

Before Laura could stammer out a weak defense, Carmilla called out, “Let’s go, barefoot! The sooner that potion gets made, the sooner we can get out of this godforsaken forest.”

Thankful for the out, Laura ducked her head and sped away from Perry, who simply smiled and began to tend to her cauldron of partial ingredients.

\--

“This should be far enough.” Carmilla determined as she and Laura came across a small creek amongst the dense thickets of the forest.

The stream curved unobtrusively through the woods, as if the great trees and boulders and hills had been designed before the stream had been set in place. The bank was lined with flat stones and fragrant wildflowers. Patches of moonlight fell through the canopy above and was brightly reflected off the running water.

Laura kneeled beside the creek and dipped her hand into it. Cupping her hand, she brought the cold water up to her mouth and sipped from it.

“Huh.” She muttered as she separated her fingers, allowing the water in her hand to splash back into the stream.

“What?” Carmilla asked distractedly, her eyes busy surveying the area for potential enemies.

Laura wiped her hand dry on her tunic and sat beside the stream as she answered, “The water has a weird taste.”

“It’s water.” Carmilla gave her an incredulous look. “It doesn’t have a flavor.”

“Okay, yeah, but this is different. This taste like…” Laura paused so that she could choose her words carefully. “This tastes kind of piney. Like, earthy, I mean. Not dirty, but something like that. I don’t know. It’s hard to explain.”

Intrigued, Carmilla neared the creek and dropped to her knees. She scooped up a handful of water and brought it to her lips. She swished it around in her mouth, then spat it back out.

“Tastes like nothing to me.” She shrugged and sat back on her heels.

“Really? You don’t taste anything weird at all?” Laura thought about it for a moment. “Does it taste different to me because I’m an elemental? Do I have like…a special connection with the water and the earth or whatever?”

“You’re asking the wrong person.” Carmilla replied indifferently. Switching the subject, she said, “I think it’s getting colder the closer we get to Level 4. Make us a fire.”

“A fire?” Laura tried to keep her exterior calm.

“Yes. A fire.” She repeated, unamused. “Or would you rather freeze for the whole hour that we have to be stuck out here on our own?”

Laura didn’t want to spend the next hour shivering, but she also didn’t want to explain to the broody vampire that making the campfire for Perry had been the result of an involuntary bodily reaction.

 “I don’t know if I can do it again.” Laura replied. It was the truth, just not the whole truth.

Doing nothing to hide how annoyed she was, Carmilla shook her head and let out an exasperated sigh. Finally, she collected herself enough to say, “You’re never going to be any good at this game if you don’t get over all of these stupid little insecurities you have. Stop doubting yourself. We’ve both seen what you’re capable of, and the sad part is that you’re capable of so much more than that. Stop throwing yourself a pity party. Stop psyching yourself out.”

“It’s not that easy.” Laura defended. “I have no idea what I’m doing. The fire, it just kind of happens. I don’t know how to snap my fingers and make it appear on command.”

“Well, what was the common factor for each time you made it work?” Carmilla thought of an answer to her own question, paused, then, without warning, pounced on top of Laura. Straddling the slightly smaller girl, Carmilla reached into her pocket and withdrew her sword. She held the sharp blade dangerously close to Laura’s throat. Leaning down, she smirked and demanded, “Make us a fire.”

“What are you doing?” Laura asked in shock.

“Endangering you.” Carmilla answered, as if it were obvious.

“You’re not going to hurt me.”

“You have three lives. You’ll regenerate just fine if I take one.”

“You wouldn’t risk it.” Laura could hear doubt in her own voice, but she pressed on. “You’d be hurting the whole team. We might need that third life later on.”

“Having an elemental who can’t pull her own weight might hurt us even more.” Carmilla countered. She carefully lowered the sword just enough so that the sharp edge hovered against Laura’s skin.

“My life being threatened isn’t the common factor.” Laura sputtered out in a hushed whisper, fearful that talking any louder might cause her throat to accidentally hit the blade.

Realization—or perhaps confirmation—flashed in the vampire’s eyes. Carmilla sat up straight and placed her sword to the side of them. She stared down at Laura, her expression unreadable. After a few tense moments, she wrapped the fingers of her burnt hand around one of Laura’s wrists and raised it up. Eyes locked with the girl beneath her, Carmilla moved Laura’s hand so that her fingertips lightly brushed against the vampire’s lips. Carmilla’s lips parted, and she took one of Laura’s fingers into her mouth.

Laura stared up at Carmilla in a speechless daze. Part of her was questioning the reality of this very erotic and very bewildering moment, while the other part was too consumed by the sensual warmth of Carmilla’s mouth to care.

Amusement twinkled in the vampire’s eyes as she began to gently suck on Laura’s finger. Arousal hit Laura directly where Carmilla was straddling her. Overwhelmed by newfound lust and utter confusion, Laura remained perfectly still beneath her. In the exact moment that Carmilla’s tongue ran along the length of her finger, the palms of Laura’s hands began to heat up.

As understanding dawned on Laura, she reluctantly forced herself to look away from the vampire, and to instead look at her own unoccupied hand. She focused on the warmth of Carmilla’s mouth, allowing that sensation to trickle down her arm, across her chest, and up to her other hand. She envisioned flames surrounding the hand, just as they had before. Heat radiated from both her palms. Unexpectedly, Carmilla lowered herself more onto Laura and slowly, teasingly, grinded against her. The additional spark of arousal was enough to pull Laura from her headspace and to consume her with visceral feeling, thus igniting the very flame that Laura had been so desperate to create.

As Carmilla removed Laura’s finger from her mouth and let go of her, she gazed into the bright flame that engulfed Laura’s other hand and smiled.

“You know…” Carmilla’s smile morphed into a mischievous grin. “I won’t be able to just drop everything and turn you on whenever we need you to burn something.”

Laura blushed, her face and the fire in her hand heating up simultaneously.

Carmilla noticed, and quietly added, “Don’t worry. This’ll stay our little secret.”

“What even _is_ this?” Laura wondered aloud. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and she was still very much aware of the fact that Carmilla was pressed against her.

“Training.” Carmilla answered simply. “Practice. Whatever you want to tell the others we did out here, I’ll go along with.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Laura replied. She wasn’t sure of how to phrase it, but Carmilla replied before she had to.

“I know that’s not what you meant.” Carmilla’s features hardened. She waited a beat, then grabbed her sword and stood.

The vampire walked along the creekside, leaving Laura to get herself off the ground on her own.

Hoping to put Carmilla back at ease, Laura said, “I won’t tell them what happened.”

Carmilla turned back to face Laura as she replied, “Good, because there’s nothing to tell.”

Laura shook her burning hand in the air, causing reflected light to dance across the stream’s surface.

“Really?” Laura asked her in disbelief. “You’re really going to pretend that there isn’t something more going on here?”

Dismissively, Carmilla said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The more passionate Laura became, the greater her flame grew.

“For some reason, we have a connection.” Laura argued. “I don’t know why we have it, but we can’t ignore it. And I know you feel it, too. Don’t act like you don’t.” She brought up her flaming hand for emphasis. “This means something. We can’t just ignore it.”

Carmilla slipped her sword into her pocket, then sullenly crossed her arms over her chest. Irritated, she huffed, “I have put in too much time and effort into this game for some _connection_ to pop up and ruin everything for me. This special connection, or whatever you want to call it, is not a good thing. It’s an inconvenience.”

Understanding doused Laura like a waterfall, prompting her flame to abruptly fizzle out. She stared at Carmilla through the darkness. She couldn’t believe that Carmilla felt the same as she did, but wanted nothing to do with it. How could anyone feel such a strong unexplainable bond with a practical stranger, and not want to explore that feeling?

Laura didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing at all.

Unable to withstand the awkward silence, Carmilla declared, “I’m going back. Come with me if you want, or stay. I don’t care either way.”

“Perry needs more time.” Laura knew her protest was pointless, but she couldn’t help herself. She had to say something. She couldn’t let Carmilla know just how rejected she felt.

“Not my problem.” Carmilla threw back as she headed in the direction they’d trekked from.

“It is your problem. You’re the one with the injury that needs healing.” Laura pointed out, her tone far from polite.

Carmilla kept walking away from the creek as she stubbornly replied, “It’s fine. I’ll live.”

“Why are you being like this?” Laura cried out. There was an embarrassing amount of raw emotion in her voice, but she was too caught up in the heat of the moment to hide it.

Carmilla stopped. With her back to Laura, she answered, “I told you before. I’m not here to make friends. I’m in this game to win. I thought by now you’d understand that…but I guess not.”

Laura wanted to call the vampire on her bullshit, but fear of deepening this new rift between them held her back. She liked Carmilla, there was no denying that. She was captivated by the mystique, the aloofness, the beautiful face, the voice, the hungry look in her eyes. All of it. She craved Carmilla’s attention. She even thought about the girl on the outside, a place that now felt dull and tedious compared to their virtual adventure.

“Fine.” Laura cleared her throat, straightened her posture, and feigned the disinterest that she so often saw from the vampire. Walking by Carmilla, she declared, “Consider us on the same page now.”

They hiked back to the temporary camp in uncomfortable silence. Laura refused to so much as glance at Carmilla, afraid that one look at the girl might break her entire performance. Instead, she stayed aware of their surroundings for any signs of danger that might be lurking in the shadows. However, despite her best effort not to, Laura secretly let the pad of her thumb trail along her index finger as she walked, thinking back to the brief moment when that finger had been between Carmilla’s lips.

After the longest walk of their lives, the girls finally reached the campfire. But, to their surprise, they found it completely unattended.

In a low growl, Carmilla muttered, “Those assholes logged out without even bothering to tell us.”

“Why would they just log out like that? That doesn’t make any sense.” Laura wondered aloud. As she neared the fire, she noticed a small cauldron sitting beside the log Perry had sat on. It was turned over on its side, the contents of it smooshed into the dirt.

Laura froze.

Cautiously, eyes searching the dark forest, she said, “Something bad happened here.”

“Like what?” Carmilla questioned from the other side of the fire.

Laura turned to look at the vampire over the flames. With dread filling her gut, she said, “I think something took them.”


	4. The Element Of Surprise

Carmilla carefully rounded the fire. Lowering her voice, she asked, “You think something took them?”

Laura lifted up Perry’s cauldron for the vampire to see as she replied, “This wouldn’t have been left behind if Perry had logged out. It would’ve gone with her. But she left it here. That means she’s still in the game somewhere.”

Frustrated, Carmilla groaned and kicked at the log. She ran a hand through her hair to pull it away from her face as she tried to come up with a plan. Finally, she said, “Okay. We have to find them. Look for more clues.”

While Carmilla sped around the makeshift campsite in search for clues, Laura remained still. Fear of the unknown sent an uncomfortable shiver down her spine. Anything could be lurking in the shadows around them, just waiting for the opportune moment to pounce, and they would have no idea.

“There’s something over here!” Carmilla called out as she knelt down on one knee.

“What’d you find?” Laura rushed to her side, feeling as if at any moment a clawed hand might pop out of the underbrush and latch on to her ankle.

“Look.” Carmilla pointed to a few distinctive tracks in the dirt. “They went north. Toward Level 4.”

Without waiting for Laura’s input, Carmilla took off in the direction the footprints led. Laura’s grip on the cauldron tightened as she nervously followed the vampire into the unknown. The fire, as if magically knowing that it was no longer needed, went out on its own, leaving them in darkness once more.

The girls walked for several moments through the eerie forest. Each hoot from an owl or crunch of a twig made Laura jump.

“How do we know that we’re going in the right direction?” Laura asked to fill the silence.

“We don’t.” Carmilla replied, clearly agitated.

“What if we go too fa—ah!” Laura’s shriek filled the forest like the piercing blow of whistle, loud and impossible to ignore. The cauldron slipped from her hands and hit the forest floor with a sad thud.

“What is it?” Carmilla’s fists were raised as she spun in a circle, looking for whatever had spooked Laura but being unable to find it. Clutching at Carmilla’s arm, Laura stared up at the tree branches above them. Slowly, Carmilla's gaze followed.

Their five abducted team members each hung upside down from the branch of an especially large tree, all cocooned in rope and seemingly fast asleep. A pair of bandits crouched on the lowest branch, their faces identical to ones the team had come across in Level 2. Each bandit held a machete as they smiled down at the girls.

Unafraid, Carmilla asked, “What do you want for them?”

The left bandit smiled wider and answered, “Mactu flowers. One dozen. No more. No less.”

Finally remembering that this was nothing more than a quest in a virtual game rather than the very real life-or-death situation that it had felt like, Laura released her hold on Carmilla’s arm and stepped away from her.

Looking up at the bandits, Laura cleared her throat and put on the bravest voice she could. “What’s a mactu flower? Where can we find it?”

The left bandit repeated, “Mactu flowers. One dozen. No more. No less.”

Laura waited for more, but the bandits said nothing. Rolling with it, Laura replied, “Okay, well, uh, not really the answer I was looking for but thanks anyway.”

Abruptly, Carmilla turned and began walking away. Laura gave her sleeping teammates one last glance, then followed the vampire.

“You know…” Laura waited until she had caught up to Carmilla to finish her thought. “I’m starting to see a recurring theme here. You love to take off running and just expect everyone to follow you.”

“Cool story.” Carmilla muttered as she aggressively trudged through the forest. Being inconvenienced by an unexpected quest was obviously testing her temper.

Laura had too many questions to choose between, so she let them all come spilling out at once. “Is everybody else really asleep? Can we even sleep in this game? What’s a mactu flower? Hey, do you know where you’re going?”

“ _What_ is with all the rambling?”

Laura knew the question was probably rhetorical, but she offered a response anyway.

“Sometimes when I’m feeling anxious I tend to talk a lot. It helps. Until I say something I shouldn’t. Which does happen. It happens a lot, actually. And you didn’t answer my questions.”

Begrudgingly, Carmilla yielded. “Fine. Ask again.”

Laura carefully slipped between a split tree trunk before asking, “Can we sleep here?”

“No. They’re somewhere else. Consciously somewhere else, I mean.” She explained.

“What’s a mactu flower?”

“Don’t know.” Carmilla answered flatly.

“So…” Laura glanced at her. “You don’t know where we’re going then?”

“Didn’t say that.”

“Then where are we going?”

As if the answer should’ve been obvious, Carmilla said, “To the creek. Where the wildflowers are. We were literally just there.”

Feeling her own temper starting to near its boiling point, Laura replied, “Well _excuse_ me for not remembering. A lot of emotionally taxing stuff has gone down between then and now. Like, I don’t know, our friends being _kidnapped_ and _held for ransom_.”

“Our teammates.” Carmilla quickly corrected.

Laura wanted so badly to call Carmilla on her bluff, but resisted the urge. The leftover tension from their unorthodox creekside training session was still palpable between them, and Carmilla’s subsequent disregard for Laura’s feelings was still weighing heavy on her mind. The last thing that Laura wanted to do was to inadvertently return to that awkwardness. This quest had provided her with an easy out, and she wasn’t going to ruin that for herself.

“Finally.” Carmilla let out a sigh of relief as they found the moonlit stream.

The abundance of wildflowers swayed in the breeze. Their colorful petals were dulled in the dark night, but similarities in sizes and shapes could be distinguished with some effort.

“What now?” Laura wondered aloud.

Carmilla gave a shrug and suggested, “Pick a dozen of each kind and hope for the best.”

As the girls busied themselves with collecting and categorizing the flowers, Laura couldn’t help but think back to what had transpired during their first visit to the creek. Though very little time had gone by, the memory of Carmilla igniting a fire within Laura already felt faded to her. The feeling of being rejected, however, still stung as sharp as ever.

“There. A dozen each.” Carmilla’s voice pulled Laura from her thoughts.

Laura did one last recount of the flowers in her hands, then asked, “What if we didn’t find the right flower?”

“Then we’ll have to keep looking.” She answered.

“This feels too…easy.” Laura noted.

While leading the way back to the bandits, Carmilla replied, “The quests at the beginning of a game are always easy. They’ll get harder as we go.”

Laura let the conversation die out. She wanted to talk more, but she didn’t quite know what to say to someone like Carmilla. The vampire was unlike anyone that Laura had ever met, which left Laura feeling both infatuated and exasperated.

After returning to the large tree, the bandits, and their cocooned teammates, Carmilla and Laura laid out their bundles of flowers as an offering. One of the identical abductors jumped to the ground and snatched up the dozen purple flowers. He examined them closer, then gave a nod to his partner in the tree. Wordlessly, the other bandit swung down his machete to cut a rope that simultaneously released each of the five hostages from the tree branch.

Waking in freefall, LaFontaine, Perry, Mattie, Danny, and Kirsch all screamed as they consciously returned to the fantasy realm just in time to feel the impact of their bodies hitting the dirt. The bandits unceremoniously ran off, leaving Carmilla and Laura to untie their team in peace.

“Took you long enough.” Mattie grumbled as Carmilla freed her from the ropes.

“Yeah, well, you wouldn’t have to wait on us to save your ass if you didn’t let yourself get captured to begin with.” Carmilla retorted.

Picking her cauldron up from where Laura had dropped it on the ground, Perry explained, “We never had a chance. They shot us with knockout darts. I saw it happen, but there was nothing I could do. One by one, everyone dropped. Then I blacked out, too.”

“Where’d you go?” Laura asked.

“It was awesome!” Kirsch grinned as he wobbled around trying to regain his balance. “We were, like, on a beach somewhere. I made a sandcastle!”

Carmilla scoffed. “While you all went on a little tropical vacation, we were here running around this forest trying to find a dozen of some mystery flower in the dark.”

Laura wanted to tell the group that Carmilla was exaggerating the difficulty of their task, but the grateful “thank yous” they received stopped her. It felt nice to be appreciated. To feel like a valued member of the team.

To feel needed.

\--

Two days of fighting off bandits, red-eyed bears, and the occasional thieving fox had passed by the time the team finally reached the directional sign that read “LEVEL 4 – ESCAL RIVER”. The dramatic shift from perpetual night in a gloomy forest to a cloudy autumn day in the countryside was a welcome change.

“Good riddance.” Danny said with relief. Flipping her middle fingers up and directing the gesture to the trees behind her, the elf bid the forest farewell.

Looking out at the new scenery, Kirsch asked, “So what is this place?”

“Escal River.” LaFontaine answered.

The enchanter pointed to the countryside that was spread out before them beneath a blanket of gray clouds. A wide and winding river cut through the green scenery, curving in and out of rolling hills as it pleased, stretching on for miles. In far the distance, large mountains with snowy peaks could be seen on the horizon.

With a touch of nervousness to her tone, Perry asked, “Isn’t this the level where player-versus-player combat starts?”

“Yes, it is.” LaFontaine shared an anxious glance with the healer. “We’ll have to be especially vigilant from here on. Programmed adversaries won’t be the only ones trying to kill us.”

Already deep in strategic thought, Mattie proposed, “We should keep clear of the river then. That’s the obvious choice for ambushes and traps.”

Dissatisfied with Mattie’s plan, Danny countered, “We should follow the river. That’s the whole point of this level. We’d waste too much time trying to avoid it. And I don’t want to end up lost on the outskirts away from all the fun.”

Idly swinging his battle-axe back and forth, Kirsch suggested, “Why don’t we just build a raft and float all the way to Level 5? The bad guys can’t kill us if they can’t reach us.”

Mattie raised a skeptical brow before asking, “How exactly do you expect the seven of us to fit on one raft?”

“Oh. Right.” Kirsch lowered his axe in shame.

“Taking the river is still our best bet.” LaFontaine’s enhanced intelligence was clearly kicking into gear. “Yes, our odds of running into adversaries and opposing teams are significantly higher than if we were to travel on the outskirts, but the river will offer benefits to compensate for the risks. Higher quality plants and whatnot. So, all in favor of taking the river?”

The vote was unanimous, which led to Danny grinning smugly as she said to Mattie, “Hiding isn’t the answer to everything. Sometimes you have to go where the danger is.”

“Oh, I’ll show you where the danger is.” Mattie threatened.

Carmilla rolled her eyes and said, “Whenever you two are done flirting, we can get going.”

“I’m ready to move forward, but I’ll need to take a break soon.” Mattie announced. “Possibly for the rest of the night.”

“The rest of the night?” Perry whined. “But we’re finally out of the forest.”

Mattie frowned and replied, “Some of us have jobs, you know. Bills don’t pay themselves.”

Danny scoffed. “You’re an unpaid intern. You’re not paying any bills, mommy and daddy are.”

Scowling, Mattie fired back, “At least I’m doing something to further my career instead of playing housekeeper for a sorority of close-minded bigots.”

“It’s not a sorority, it’s a club!”

“That doesn’t change the fact that it sucks.”

“Guys, come on.” LaFontaine sighed. “We agreed not to talk about the outside anymore. It taints the roleplaying experience.”

“Ha. _Taints_.” Kirsch giggled immaturely.

Perry pointed a stern finger at the orc and said, “No. You stop that.”

“Such a buzzkill.” He muttered back.

“I am not a buzzkill!” Perry exclaimed, scaring a flock of birds from a tree down the hillside.

Mattie and Carmilla exchanged matching looks before the vampire said to Perry, “You’re about as much fun as washing dishes.”

Confused, Perry earnestly replied, “Washing dishes _is_ fun.”

“Leave Perry alone.” Danny directed her comment mostly to Carmilla.

“Or what?” Carmilla prompted.

Glaring down at the smaller girl, Danny answered, “Or I’ll make you leave her alone.”

“Woah. Hey.” Laura stepped between Danny and Carmilla. “Come on. Knock it off. We’re supposed to be a team, remember?”

Carmilla, who seemed to be more annoyed by Laura’s intrusion than by Danny’s threat, said to her, “Mind your own business, barefoot.”

“That’s not my name!” Laura snapped unexpectedly. The team had yet to see Laura lose her cool to this extent. Each of them stared. Regaining her composure, she added, “Maybe taking a break would be a good idea. We’re all a little…on edge, apparently.”

“All in favor of a one hour break?” LaFontaine proposed.

“No. I’m done for the day.” Mattie cut in before anyone could vote. “For my own mental health, I need time away from all this stress.”

“Oh. Okay.” LaFontaine’s shoulders visibly slumped in disappointment. “I guess we’ll log back in tomorrow morning at the usual time then?”

Looking guilty, Perry said, “I can’t. I have an appointment in the morning. Sorry, I meant to mention it earlier.”

“Okay. Anyone else have a schedule conflict?” LaFontaine looked around at the group. “No? Alright. We’ll push the login time back two hours then. Is that good for you, Perry?”

“Yes, that should work.” She nodded.

“Well, now that that’s settled.” Mattie didn’t bother to say a formal goodbye before vanishing into thin air.

“Later.” Kirsch gave a small wave to the others before following suit.

One by one, they departed, until only Carmilla and Laura remained.

Quickly, before Carmilla could log off, Laura said to her, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you like I did. I just…I don’t know. Tensions were high. I’m sorry.”

Taking on an unusually sincere tone, Carmilla quietly replied, “Don’t ever apologize for standing up for yourself.”

The vampire vanished, and Laura was left alone.

\--

The following morning, the team reunited at the predetermined time. Though they each put the previous day’s arguments behind them, the underlying tension was, as usual, still lingering just beneath the surface.

As they trekked through the rolling hills of the countryside, they kept close to the river’s edge. LaFontaine had been right in predicting that valuable plants would be growing there. Within the first hour of their journey through Level 4, the team had even stumbled across a hidden chest that had contained more durable healer’s armor and an upgraded enchanter’s staff, which LaFontaine had been absolutely delighted to obtain.

It wasn’t until the third hour of play, not even a full twenty minutes since they’d fought off a family of wild boars, that they came across another team of players.

“What should we do?” Perry asked as they all crouched behind a rock formation.

Observing the opposing team, which sat camped down the hill beside the river, Kirsch gleefully suggested, “Let’s take them out!”

With a nod, Mattie added, “It feels strange to say this, but I agree with Kirsch. We should challenge them while we have the element of surprise.”

Appalled, Perry asked, “Is that really the kind of team we want to be? A bunch of bullies who come along and steal from others? What if we were in their position?”

“That’s the point.” LaFontaine countered. “We could easily be in their position soon. Not only would attacking first ensure that this team would not be able to sneak up on us at a later time, but it would provide us with much needed practice with player-versus-player combat—an area we have yet to gain any experience in. Fighting virtual bandits and animals is completely different than fighting a human being. People are less predictable. And our sympathies will be tested. It will be important to remember, while this game feels very real at times, we are not actually killing these people. They will regenerate at the beginning of the level when they lose a life, unless they’re losing their last life, of course. In that case, the individual player will regenerate back in Sylsa at Level 1.”

“I have a question.” Laura felt all eyes turn to her. Trying not to sound afraid, she asked, “Does it feel like dying? When someone kills you in the game…does it feel like you’re actually dying?”

“That depends on your mindset.” LaFontaine explained. “If you forget that this place is all pretend, then I’m sure there could be some psychological trauma related to the experience, but it’s not meant to feel that way. Ideally, you should suffer no more than you do when your character dies while playing a regular video game back home on your couch. A brief sense of rage and disappointment, but no real harm in the end.”

Danny, whose elf vision provided her with a more detailed view, surveyed the opposing team and noted, “These idiots have three orcs down there. An imbalanced team like that shouldn’t be too hard to take out.”

“Three orcs on one team?” Mattie questioned.

“Yeah.” Danny poked her head above the rocks to get another good look. “Three orcs, one rogue, one elf, a human, and an enchanter.”

With a humorous expression, LaFontaine said, “Calling them ‘idiots’ may have been an understatement.”

Kirsch, clearly eager to get started, asked the team, “So what’s our battle plan?”

Carmilla was quick to point out, “We should use their weaknesses against them. With three orcs on their team, they won’t be able to run for cover. They’ll have to stay and fight us out in the open.”

“They’ll try to protect their healer.” Perry added.

“As should we.” Mattie proposed while bringing up the hood of her cloak.

“Perry and I can stay here.” Danny suggested. “I’ll be able to see everything from this vantage point.”

LaFontaine looked to Carmilla and said, “We’ll have to keep a safe distance between us so that my magic doesn’t overwhelm your strength again. Especially with your hand still injured.”

“I want an orc to myself.” Carmilla declared.

“Let me at one, too!” Kirsch excitedly gave his battle-axe a few practice swings.

“I’ll take the third.” Laura’s words surprised them all. To clarify her decision, she explained, “Fighting an orc seems like the reasonable next step after killing a bear.”

“I killed that bear.” Carmilla reminded her.

“By technicality.” Laura insisted.

“Technicality…” Carmilla looked at her in disbelief. “How is my sword in the bear’s back a technicality?”

“It would’ve killed you if I hadn’t been there.”

“It almost killed me _because_ you were there.”

“Hey!” Danny snapped at them. “Focus. This isn’t the time for a lover’s quarrel.”

Equally embarrassed, both Carmilla and Laura retreated from the discussion without a parting quip. The rest of the group sensed the awkwardness, but spared the girls of questions about it.

Drawing back the team’s attention, LaFontaine said, “Okay, so we’ve got the orcs taken care of. I have a spell that should handle the rogue. That leaves the elf, the enchanter, and the healer.”

“I call dibs on killing the elf.” Mattie replied with a sly glance Danny’s way.

Ignoring Mattie, Danny said, “I can take out the enchanter first, then aim for the healer when the chaos starts. Everyone ready?” She waited as the others withdrew their weapons and prepared themselves for what was to come. Cautiously, Danny readied her bow and arrow and lined up the shot over the rocks. After taking in a deep breath and slowly blowing it back out, she released. The arrow shot directly into the enemy enchanter’s back, evoking a panicked shout from the unsuspecting man.

With a battle cry from Kirsch, the team descended the hill in full attack mode. Laura’s heart was racing in her chest as she approached the opposing team, and she used that spark of adrenaline to fuel her power. Fire engulfed her hands, a feeling that was finally becoming familiar to her, in the same moment that the harsh sounds of metal clanging against metal hit her ears.

The scene was chaotic. People were running in all directions, some trying to flee into the river while others attempted to fight back against the ambush. Arrows and beams of magic whizzed through the air, hardly ever hitting their targets. The ground trembled with the aggressive movements from Kirsch and the three enemy orcs, one of which had set his sights on Laura and was now barreling straight for her.

Laura brought up her hands, and, while quickly walking backward, flung as many fireballs at the oncoming orc as she could. Only one out of every three flaming balls hit the enormous target. Angered even more, the orc continued his approach with sizzling scorch marks covering his leather armor. Laura felt cold splashes of water hitting her legs as she walked backward into the river, but she kept her eyes on the enemy.

For a moment, Laura felt hopelessly at a loss. There was no way that she could take on an orc in a fistfight, let alone take on an orc who was carrying an axe that was almost as big as she was. Her fireballs had failed to burn through his armor and she was running low on time. She stopped and stood still in the river, knowing that if she went any farther the current could easily sweep her away. The cold water was only up to her shins, but she could feel its chill seeping into her whole body. Instinctively, Laura allowed the sensation to pour itself into the very core of her being.

“You and your little pals are going to pay for this.” The orc threatened as he brought his battle-axe up over his head. His large feet splashed into the river’s edge, where he stopped and stared down at Laura with malice in his eyes.

“We’ll see about that.” Laura replied flatly. As the orc’s axe began to swing down, she felt neither confident nor frightened, but tranquil.

Reflexively, Laura brought up her hands in a blocking motion, and, to her pleasant surprise, two large streams of water shot up from the river and slammed into the orc with enough force to knock the axe from his hands and send the player stumbling back. Laura stared in awe at her own flaming hands as water continued to pummel the orc. She closed her hands into fists, and the water splashed back into the river.

Drenched, the orc glowered at her. He began to approach again, his focus on retrieving his battle-axe from the river. Laura pointed her right palm at the weapon in the water and imagined the axe burning just as hot as her hands were. When the orc reached into the water and gripped the seemingly untampered handle, he let out a pained cry. Pulling away, he cradled his burnt hand close to his chest.

“I’m going to kill you slow, little girl.” The orc promised.

Redirecting her aim from the axe in the river to the whiney man across from it, Laura warned him, “This might sting a little.”

On cue, a stream of boiling hot water rose into the air and propelled itself at the orc. He fell backward, landing in the river with an impressive splash. Laura ceased her attack as she walked over to him. The fall had stunned the orc, leaving him lying dazed and defenseless in the shallow water. Laura aimed her flaming hand at his head. With minimal hesitation, she sent a powerful fireball flying directly into his face. She waited a moment to see if the orc was still alive, but he remained motionless.

Laura felt sick to her stomach as she stared down at the stranger’s now unrecognizable face.

“It’s just a game.” She mumbled. She took in a deep breath, held it, then released. Again, she reminded herself, “It’s a just a game. It’s not real.”

A scream from the riverside pulled Laura back to the task at hand. Leaving the orc’s body behind, she walked out of the water and back to dry land. The scene was much different than it had looked before the attack. Puddles and streaks of red blood coated the grassy hillside, along with the bodies of the fallen.

LaFontaine, whose hair stood straight up on their head as if they’d been comically electrocuted, gave Laura a pat on the back and said, “Impressive water moves. I didn’t know you could do that.”

“Neither did I.” Laura admitted.

Already cleaning her daggers, Mattie looked up at them and said, “That’s the best part about moving on to a new level. We get stronger each time we do.”

“That was totally awesome!” Kirsch shouted enthusiastically.

“Uh. Kirsch?” Perry stared at him with a pale face as she and Danny reached the gathering group. “You do realize that you’re _missing an arm_ , right?”

Kirsch looked down at the air where his left arm used to be, then nonchalantly asked, “Do you think it’ll grow back?”

While Perry lectured Kirsch on treatable versus untreatable injuries, Laura ventured over to where Carmilla stood near the edge of the battleground with her bloody sword still in hand.

“Was your orc as creepy as mine was?” Laura asked her jokingly.

Staring at the distant mountains on the horizon, Carmilla ignored the question and instead replied, “We need better gear. Stronger armor, upgraded weapons, health potions that actually work. We did good here, but it was sloppy. The sooner we get to Level 5, the better. Vakel will have shops we can trade in. Places to hide. Reprieve from player-versus-player combat. We’re too weak to be out in the open like this. If we hadn’t had the element of surprise, this whole thing might’ve ended differently. We need to get to that town before we’re the ones who are getting ambushed.”

Despite her best efforts not to, Laura smiled at the vampire.

Feeling eyes on her, Carmilla glanced at Laura and asked, “What’s that look for?”

“It’s nothing. I was just thinking…” Laura trailed off.

Hesitantly, Carmilla asked, “Thinking what?”

“I don’t know.” Laura shrugged. “I was thinking about how sometimes you sound so much like a leader. Like our leader.”

Carmilla rolled her eyes, but smiled. “Joan of Arc couldn’t lead this sorry bunch of misfits.”

A commotion from behind made the girls turn back in time to see Kirsch in the midst of a victory dance.

“All will learn to fear the awesome Team Rainbow!” He exclaimed before promptly tripping over his feet and landing directly on top of his own axe’s blade. With a pitiful wheeze, he whimpered, “That’s gonna leave a mark.”

Dramatically, his head fell back with a thud.

“Did he just…” Danny angrily threw down the supplies that she had been collecting from the opposing team’s belongings. “Damn it! That moronic frat boy just died on us.”

With a sigh, LaFontaine said, “Well, we’d better go back to the start of the level and get him.”

“Won’t that other team be there?” Perry questioned.

LaFontaine frowned. “Oh. You’re right. I’ll message Kirsch and tell him to log out so those guys don’t take his other two lives.”

Perry groaned and said, “Let’s hope we don’t run into them on our way back to Kirsch. That’s one awkward encounter I don’t want to see.”

Carmilla turned back to face the horizon. Quietly, so that only Laura would be able to hear her, she said, “See what I mean?”


	5. Always So Dramatic

The journey through Level 4 was long and tedious, but the payoff was well worth the effort. The team found an abundance of valuable ingredients for Perry, who was able to brew several reasonably good potions and poisons. Each time that Perry stopped to brew, Laura and a volunteer would have to venture away from the river, which subsequently led to more than a few quality one-on-one conversations.

Danny, for instance, had confided in Laura about her many girlfriend issues on the outside. Kirsch had spent a solid hour discussing his new obsession with canon Distant Worlds lore—everything from the First Orc Rebellion to the Elven Treaty of Julsin to the rise of the Depraved Knight and his undead army. LaFontaine had preferred to discuss strategies and battle scenarios. Mattie, whom Laura had fully expected to be ignored by, talked with her about having attended a business conference in Venice the previous summer. It was Carmilla who chose to socially distance herself from Laura during their time alone, though that wasn’t much of a shock. The two had yet to discuss what happened at the creek in Level 3, and, considering Carmilla’s general disinterest in talking about anything that did not pertain to the game itself, the topic was unlikely to come up on its own again.

The days of travel leading up to the team’s arrival at Level 5 were full of physical activity. Herds of wild boars aggressively attacked anyone who strolled too close, and the occasional little gang of bandits would spring from the hills with machetes and ropes in hand. The adversaries were tough, but manageable. They provided the team with multiple chances to practice working cohesively rather than individually, which was especially important now that the team’s skills were becoming more advanced.

The time would come, LaFontaine had warned, when the adversaries they faced would be impossible to defeat without teamwork.

A welcome break from the violence came when the team reached the city of Vakel, the sole location for Level 5. The fortified town sat cliffside at the end of the river, overlooking a massive waterfall. Vakel was drastically different from the sunny ambiance of Sylsa. Dark clouds shrouded the sky, giving the appearance of night as heavy rain fell relentlessly within its walls. Distinct Gothic architecture lined either side of the narrow, cobbled streets. The people of Vakel hid away in their townhouses and shops, their windows warmly lit up by fireplaces.

After crossing through the gates of Level 5, the team took refuge from the unforgiving storm in a dusty tavern. Their clothes and armor were soaked as they walked through the entrance. All patrons turned to look them over, then resumed their idle chatter while the eclectic team of newcomers claimed a table in the back.

“I’m glad this is an isolated narrative.” Perry declared with relief. “I’m so tired of fighting off pigs and bandits. I don’t want to even imagine how exhausting it would be to run around a city with PvP going on.”

Nodding, LaFontaine added, “We’re fortunate that we’ve only run into one other team so far. Our odds of surviving an attack by pigs or bandits are much greater than our odds of surviving player-versus-player combat, which we do need more experience with.”

Kirsch, who was too busy eyeing the bar to take a seat at the table, suggested, “Maybe we should take a night off and enjoy the town. We’ve earned it.”

LaFontaine considered the proposition for a moment, then proposed, “All in favor of a night off?”

Each member raised their hand in approval, and, before LaFontaine could get another word out, they dispersed all at once. Kirsch and Danny headed straight for the bar; Carmilla and Mattie muttered something about searching for “black market deals” and sauntered out into the rainy streets; and LaFontaine and Perry went off looking for quality shops to trade in.

Suddenly, Laura was left alone at the table feeling like the odd one out.

As she sat in the back of the little tavern trying not to let her insecurities show, she noticed a white-haired man eyeing her from a nearby table. He had a bushy beard and he was dressed like a drowned pirate who’d just crawled out of the sea.

“Can I help you?” Laura finally snapped at the man.

He snarled at her, revealing several gold teeth. With a deep, gravelly voice, he said, “I’ve seen your barefoot kind before. Out in the wild. Savages, they are. Live like animals. Sleeping in the dirt. Painting themselves in mud. Eyes shining in the light like a cat. Gliding through the swamp like crocodiles. Reckon I’d take my chances with the crocodiles over fire-breathing demons.”

Laura felt oddly insulted, as if she herself was being personally attacked, but the slurred speech of the visibly inebriated man kept her from speaking out.

“Your kind…” He continued, leaning in with an elbow on his thigh. “Uncivilized. Undisciplined. It’s not right. Out there living like that. Even the orcs left the marsh. But not your kind. No. Still out there. Still wild. There’s that old saying…’not even the gods themselves could pull an elemental from its hole in the ground’.” He pointed a finger at her. “But, as I live and breathe, here one is. Right in front of me. Your companions have even dressed you up. Got you looking like us normal folk. Except the feet, of course. Can always spot one of you that way.”

“Guess you don’t see many strangers come through here.” Laura replied flatly. She looked over at the bar, dread filling her as she saw that Danny and Kirsch were too busy arguing over who could consume the most ale to help her deal with this drunk old man.

“Oh, we got strangers alright.” He paused to sip from his cup. “Too many, if you ask me. Starting to take over. Not right. That mayor, he’s a fool. Thinking that foreign wife of his can be trusted. Never met a vampire I could trust. About as rare as seeing an elemental congregating with civilized folk.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t stereotype people.” Laura muttered back distractedly, already checking out of the conversation.

“What’s that you said?” He scooted his chair closer. His drink sloshed onto the table as he moved it with him. “Took a blast of magic from a fairy to the left ear when I was a boy. Been useless to me ever since. Nasty little shits, those fairies. World would be better without them, if you ask me.”

Laura gave him an incredulous look and said, “I didn’t ask.”

“Ha.” He chuckled. “You’re a feisty one. Yeah, that fire is in you. It’s there. I see it. In your eyes. The eyes always talk. They say what the heart won’t.” He took another swig from his cup then added, “That’s why there’s no trusting a vampire. The eyes are dead. No life in them. No truth.”

“There are good vampires.” Laura defended. She wasn’t sure why she was arguing with a virtual character, but she couldn’t help herself. The tavern, the drunk man, the musty smell of unwashed bodies and ale. Everything mixed together to perfectly fool the senses. To make the player forget that they were playing anything at all.

“Good vampires? Ha! Like saying orcs can fly. Ridiculous, that’s what that is. One look at the mayor’s wife is all you need for you to know how it is. Bloodsuckers aren’t to be trusted. Killing is too much a part of who they are. All they know. Fiddling with blood magic, hypnotizing their victims…it’s unnatural.”

Sensing a recurring theme, Laura questioned, “What is it with you and the mayor’s wife?”

“Since you asked…” He smirked and dropped his voice to a whisper. “I’d bet my good ear that she’s the one snatching up all those people. Drinking their blood. Draining the life out of them. Dumping the bodies over the waterfall. No evidence that way, you see. Smart, that’s what that is. Mayor is allowing it, too. Probably under her spell. Poor fella doesn’t even know his own name, I’d reckon.”

“Wait. So…people are going missing?” Laura asked.

He nodded. “More than a few. Got all the sensible folk frightened. Hasn’t been a terror like this around here since the old days. Making folks remember what used to be. Folks don’t like that.”

Laura waved to Kirsch and Danny, frantically attempting to get their attention. When the orc and the elf finally noticed, they returned to the table and Laura asked the stranger to repeat what he’d told her. And repeat he did. Word for word, he repeated everything to Kirsch and Danny. Each expression, every chuckle, even the way that the lines on his wrinkled face moved, was all exactly the same.

“Nice.” Kirsch grinned when the stranger finished retelling his scripted words. “So, like, we need to go capture the mayor’s wife, right?”

Danny gave him a skeptical look as she said, “Are you kidding me? The wife is obviously a red herring. It’s probably the mayor who’s behind everything.”

“Oh, sure, it’s just so _obvious_.” Kirsch mocked.

“Orcs.” The stranger scoffed. “Nothing but a bunch of dimwitted imbeciles. Try to pretend to be one of us, but they’re not. One foot always in the muck, I’d say.”

Kirsch glared at him. “You want to go, old man? Keep talking. Come on. Make my day, bro. Let’s do this. Right here, right now. Come on. Let’s go. Square up, grandpa.”

Danny nonchalantly moved so that she was standing between Kirsch and the stranger. Looking down at the man, she asked, “Who are you? Why should we believe you?”

Hesitantly, the man answered, “They call me Blacksword. Name used to mean something. People got no respect for heroes now. Last of the elite, that’s what I am. We were the ones who stayed and fought while the cowards went running for the hills. The undead army, they came to take Vakel. But we stood our ground. Saved this town. No respect for it now. The young, they don’t know. Time changes things. Changes us. Names that meant something…not now.”

Kirsch’s entire demeanor shifted from pompous frat boy to enthralled fan boy.

“You…” Kirsch dropped to his knees on the tavern floor, staring at the man with his mouth hanging open in awe. “You’re Blacksword? Blacksword of Vakel, slayer of the undead?” He looked back at Danny and Laura to add, “This guy is a legend. He led the Defense of Vakel. Like, fifty years ago, the Depraved Knight tried to take control of the city. Blacksword and his friends stopped it. They saved everyone. The dude’s a war hero.”

“Huh.” Blacksword eyed Kirsch suspiciously. “An orc who knows his place. Time changes some things for the better, it seems.”

Understanding that he was still being insulted, Kirsch jumped back to his feet. Keeping his temper under control, he looked the old man up and down and said, “And time changes some things for the worse.”

Danny, directing her words to Laura and Kirsch, said, “We need to tell the others about this. If people are going missing throughout the whole town, this is probably the narrative we have to beat to move on to Level 6.”

“What happens if we never beat the isolated narrative?” Laura asked curiously.

“We replay it until we beat it. Or, you know, until we run out of lives trying.” Danny answered, eyes already glazing over as she paused to send an urgent message to their teammates.

\--

“Okay. So, here’s our list of suspects…” LaFontaine pointed to their handwritten notes. It was late into the evening, and the team had split up and reunited close to a dozen times in search for clues about the missing townsfolk. “Mayor Glepp is the democratically-elected political leader of Vakel. He’s said to be very likeable, but people are beginning to question his leadership with the continued disappearances remaining unsolved.” LaFontaine moved on to the next name on their list. “The mayor’s mysterious vampire wife. Apparently, she is the daughter of a foreign vampire king who disowned her for unknown reasons. Next, we have Yul, a pacifistic werewolf who is Mayor Glepp’s political rival. He is currently benefiting from the growing civil unrest. Should the backlash continue to grow, Yul would be the likely successor to Glepp. Then we have Damien, the mayor’s eccentric former housekeeper. Damien was fired for allegedly stealing a valuable necklace from Mrs. Glepp. And our final suspects are a group of female orcs who’ve recently moved into town, though I suspect the townsfolk are merely expressing prejudice with their accusations against the orcs.”

“Don’t forget to put down Blacksword.” Mattie replied, openly glaring at the old man at the next table over. He was passed out and drooling, but that was probably for the best. There wasn’t a single member of the team who wasn’t ready to show ol’ talkative Blacksword the back of their hand.

“Ah, yes. Thank you.” LaFontaine quickly jotted down the final name with their charcoal pencil. “Mustn’t forget the disgruntled war hero turned bigoted town drunk.”

“So, what do we do now?” Perry questioned the group.

Carmilla lazily gestured to the list and said, “We need evidence that one of these people is causing the disappearances.”

“Stakeout time!” Kirsch rubbed his big hands together excitedly. “Just like on the old cop shows.”

LaFontaine shrugged and said, “That’s actually not a bad idea, Kirsch.”

“We’re splitting up?” Perry asked. “Again? What happened to all of that talk about teamwork?”

Mattie explained, “We don’t need seven people to watch one little mayor. Splitting up gives us a chance to watch multiple suspects at once.”

Still hesitant, Perry asked, “Do we have to do it right now? This can’t wait until morning?”

“Afraid not.” LaFontaine replied. “The townsfolk say that the disappearances have almost exclusively happened overnight. Their loved one goes out for a stroll and never comes home, or goes to work early but never makes it there. We’ve yet to encounter anyone who knows for a fact that someone was taken during daylight hours.”

“Fine.” Perry relented. “How do we pick who watches who?”

Carmilla stepped forward and declared, “I call watching the mayor’s house. If he makes an appearance, I’ll be able to use my enhanced charisma to get the truth out of him.”

“Fair enough.” LaFontaine looked around. “Any other volunteers?”

“I’ll go.” Laura offered. Though it was true that she secretly wanted to spend more alone time with Carmilla, she mostly volunteered to to save the vampire the embarrassment of seeing that no one else wanted to.

Danny pointed to a name on LaFontaine’s list and said, “I’ll watch the werewolf, Yul. I’ll be able to keep a safe enough distance away that he shouldn’t be able to catch my scent.”

“I’ll go with you.” Perry told her.

“Kirsch…” LaFontaine turned toward him. “I think it would be best if you kept an eye on the tribe of female orcs. They’re likely to be more friendly with another orc than with the rest of us.”

Kirsch flexed his biceps and said, “No problem. These bad boys will dazzle those ladies into spilling all their secrets. It works every time.”

LaFontaine blinked, then continued, “Anyway…that leaves Damien, the mayor’s former housekeeper, for myself and Mattie to watch.”

“Let’s hurry.” Mattie replied. “It’s late enough as it is, and we still need to find out where some of those suspects live.”

LaFontaine nodded and said to the group, “Okay. If you find anything suspicious, message the group chat. If you find yourself under attack, run. And if you get caught…” LaFontaine dramatically moved their hand to their chest to cover their heart. “Die with honor.”

\--

In a dark alleyway behind a row of identical townhouses, Carmilla and Laura huddled together beside a brick wall and beneath a makeshift tarp—and neither the wall nor the tarp did much to keep the rain from soaking them.

Shivering, teeth chattering, Laura asked, “Are we sure this is the mayor’s house?”

“Yes.” Carmilla answered grumpily. “There’s a fancy little sign on the front door. I saw it earlier.”

“Do we even know that he’s home?” Laura wondered aloud.

Sarcasm dripped from her tone as she replied, “Good question. Why don’t you go knock on the door and ask?”

Laura didn’t particularly want to ask her next question, but the chilling cold rain and the unnerving darkness of an unfamiliar town gave her just enough distractions to push through it.

“Are you mad that I volunteered to come with you?”

Carmilla’s jaw clenched, then relaxed. Carefully, while refusing to make eye contact, she answered, “I’m not mad at you.”

Since the ball was already rolling, Laura didn’t hold back as she said, “Look…I get it. You don’t want to be friends. That’s fine. I mean, I think it’s bullshit, but that’s just my opinion, and we’re all entitled to our own opinion. Wow. Uh, okay. I’m not really saying this the way that I want to. What I’m trying to say…is that I understand you have a no-friendship boundary and I’m not trying to cross that. I’m just trying to talk to you. Just a conversation between teammates. Communication is necessary for us to work together, you know.”

“Is there a reason I’m being lectured?” Carmilla asked with a raised brow.

“I’m just trying to make sure we’re still on the same page.” Laura clarified. “I don’t want you mistaking my intentions for something they’re not.”

“Cool your jets, cupcake.” Carmilla replied.

“Wrong realm, _sugarpie_.” Laura countered.

“Oh?” Carmilla smirked as she looked Laura over. “Touché.”

As Laura stared into the vampire’s eyes, she didn’t care that cold rain was beating down on them. As Laura intently watched Carmilla lick her lips, she didn’t care that crouching in an alleyway made her knees hurt. As Laura waited, eyes now locked with Carmilla’s, she felt the heat in her core spread throughout her limbs, warming her whole body.

“Is that you?” Carmilla asked, voice hardly loud enough for Laura to hear over the thundering downpour.

Slowly, Carmilla let go of the tarp with one of her hands and moved it to gently brush against Laura’s arm. Her fingers felt like ice against Laura’s warm skin.

A bit in awe, the vampire admitted, “I can feel the heat coming off you.”

“Are you cold?” Laura asked, completely certain of what the answer would be.

“Of course I’m cold.” Carmilla answered, completely aware of what Laura was up to.

Recalling the time that she and Carmilla had been trapped in a tree trunk by a red-eyed bear, Laura said to her, “You can relax. I don’t bite.”

With a smile tugging at the corner of Carmilla’s lips, she scooted closer to Laura beneath the tarp, until their sides touched, then asked, “And just how am I supposed to interpret your intentions now?”

“How ever you want, my totally platonic teammate.” Laura smiled in response.

Carmilla laughed and shook her head, clearly enjoying that Laura was still willing to push the limits.

“And don’t worry.” Laura added quickly. “No one has to know that I kept you warm.”

“Don’t go getting too excited.” Carmilla warned playfully. “If I had a choice between you or a wet dog to keep me warm, I’d take the dog.”

“Um, excuse you!” Laura laughed. “A wet dog? Really? That sure is a funny way of saying ‘thank you so much for saving my life, Laura, because I could’ve _froze_ _to_ _death_ without you _’_.”

“Always so dramatic.” Carmilla teased.

Without missing a beat, Laura countered, “It’s better than being boring like you.”

A beautiful smile slowly stretched across Carmilla’s face. Pleased that Laura was willing to banter with her, she said, “You’re lucky that you’re hot.”

Before Laura could stop to ask if Carmilla had meant hot as in temperature or hot as in attractive—which she was fully aware had been left open to interpretation by the vampire on purpose—curtains on the second floor of the mayor’s home were drawn back to reveal an elegant woman standing in the window. She was young, not much older than they were, and there was a clear sadness in her eyes, visible even through the rain.

“I need to talk to her.” Carmilla decided abruptly.

“What?” Laura looked from the gorgeous woman in the window to the gorgeous woman at her side. “Why? We’re here to watch the mayor and his wife, not talk to them.”

“She’s a vampire. She’ll tell me what she knows.” Carmilla replied. She had yet to look away from the woman in the window.

“Just because she’s a vampire, doesn’t mean she’ll be nice.” Laura pointed out.

“Look at her.” Carmilla smirked. “Nice is the last thing that dissatisfied housewife wants. She’s bored out of her mind. She went from being a princess among her own kind, to living in a town full of strangers that hate her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s picking them off one by one as revenge, but that sounds way too obvious. I’d bet she’s the key to solving the mystery, rather than the source of it. She’s the person in all of this that players would be least likely to question. People probably just assume it’s her right from the start.”

“How are you going to get her alone? The mayor is in there with her.” Laura reminded the vampire.

Carmilla thought about it for a moment, then, without warning, crawled out from beneath the tarp and stood in the middle of the alleyway.

“What are you doing?” Laura whispered frantically. “She’ll see you!”

“That’s the point.” Carmilla replied as she stood out in the open in the pouring rain.

The mayor’s wife, as if on cue, turned her head and caught sight of Carmilla. She stared at her for a few long, tense seconds, then dropped the curtains. They fell into place, and the woman at the window was gone.

Laura, still huddled close to the ground with the makeshift tarp over her head, looked up at Carmilla in disbelief. “What if she tells the mayor that we’re out here!”

“She won’t.” Carmilla answered knowingly.

The backdoor to the mayor’s house crept open. The doorway remained empty, making it clear that this gesture was meant as an invitation.

“I’ll be back.” Carmilla muttered as she fearlessly walked up to the house and through the door.

Laura, now alone in the dark alleyway, still soaking wet and crouching beside the brick wall, grumbled angrily to herself as she began to shiver in the cold again.

**Author's Note:**

> You can follow me here: [puntrest](https://puntrest.tumblr.com/)


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